Purukumi
by J4643
Summary: It's about Sora and Kairi, the childhood friends. Sora has unrequited feelings for Kairi, but Kairi noticed just everyone else than him. At the moment, Roxas is the center of Kairi's feelings, but what would happen if she got rejected? What could happen next? A romance/drama fanfiction with bits of manga- and anime-related things in the background.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: A Barely Orange Sunset**

Sora leaned on the back of his office-like chair. He adjusted his hand on the back of his head and glanced to the left, out of the window, where he could see the sunset. 'Tsk, what sunset. The sun's barely even orange yet...' he thought, and turned his eyes back to the computer screen. He was supposed to be working on his summer homework, but – for a reason or another – he couldn't concentrate and had watched his favorite Disney movies for the four hours now. He didn't think watching K-rated movies was dumb. No, not at all. He looked up to the heroes of them, yearning to be like on of them. His best friends Riku and Kairi had been watching them with him since they were four years old, but about three years ago Riku claimed that they were for little children, and Kairi hadn't been watching them with Sora in ages. At least, it felt like it.

Sora sighed. "The last day of my vacation, huh? ..."  
"Ye~s, it is!" a cheery girl behind him confirmed, being so close to his neck he could feel her breath. The spiky-haired boy blushed. "You startled me, Kairi", he said and turned around to see her face properly. "That's the idea, y'know?" Kairi winked, pointing at the roof. Sora's room was filled with star-shaped objects, and the roof was sky-colored and filled with those magical decorations that shiny in the dark. And yes, they were star-shaped, of course. Cheesy lines popped into his head, and his mouth even opened, but he decided to not say any of them. Even though he acknowledged his feelings towards Kairi, he had decided to keep silent about them, protecting their friendship. And so, he just replied:"Sure sure", and turned around and continued watching The Lion King.

"He~h, The Lion King... This one was really good", Kairi murmured as she saw what Sora was watching. "But you know, I haven't seen you touch any of your books, and we had a to~n of homework from the teachers... Now now, was it from from Mr. Xemnas, Mr. Saix–, even Demyx gave us homework, and gee~, he's the music teacher..." Kairi exhaled heavily. "'Play an instrument everyday for at least half an hour' is an impossible task! Unless you actually play an instrument."  
Sora made a small voice of agreement, even though he didn't pay any attention to what Kairi was saying. "So~ra, are you listening?" she asked, and blew gently in his ear. The brunet jumped mentally at least five meters in the ear, through the roof and came back. "W-w-what did y-you say?" he replied in confusion. "Oh, so _now_ you're back", Kairi snickered. "I was just asking if you'd want to do the homework together... But I guess not", she said and acted dissapointed, since she knew this would wake Sora up and agree to her request. And it worked.

"Oh yeah, homework!" Sora remembered. "If it's not too much of a bother to you..."  
Kairi giggled "Of course it's not!" and took a few steps back. "I'll be waiting in the living room. Oh, and I asked if, uhm... Roxas – you know – would like to come with us... If that's fine with you", the red-head said, now blushing slightly. She was looking down at her small cute toes which were decorated with nail polish and her ankle that had her good luck charm on it. "W-well, is it?"

As much as Sora would have wanted to say no, or say something related to concentrating better alone and deciding to do his homework alone, he tried to grin – which probably looked forced, but he couldn't tell – and said it was fine. Roxas had been Sora's number one rival since the seventh grade. But at the same he couldn't help but admire him. Roxas excelled in everything he did, and he wasn't even trying. Riku was basically the same, but at least Riku was a year older, meaning Sora looked at him more like a student respects his teacher. Or better yet, as an older brother. Yes, that would be it. But really, comparing Roxas and Sora was like comparing a level fifty Legendary Pokémon to non-Legendary Pokémon of the same level. Just looking at their stats and abilities one would notice the difference. Or at least, that's what Sora thought. 'I shouldn't be worrying about stuff like this!' he thought and stood up, took the huge pile of books, and started walking towards the living room, prepared for the worst.

When Sora arrived in the living room in 8.124236538 seconds, he saw Kairi and Roxas there, already solving the problems. 'Didn't Kairi say that she'd wait for me?' He felt sort of dissapointed, and was wondering whether he should join in and finally start his homework, or if he should just go back to his room and continue watching The Lion King, leave his homework undone and get scolded the next day at school... Really bad. He would've honestly turned around and go watch his movie, if Kairi wouldn't have noticed him at the last second and shout:"Hey, Sora~! Where do you think you're going?"

'Gre~at. Now I have absolutely no choice.' Sora turned around and faked a smile. "Gee, I thought you would've been better off without me!" and as he said that, he felt like stabbing himself. That wasn't what he planned to say, but apparently his mouth reacted too quickly to his thoughts. Kairi looked up from his maths book and gave him a worried look. He glanced at Roxas, who looked as puzzled as she did, and then she got up from her comfortable pose and went to Sora. She slightly touched his right arm, which was enough to make Sora's heart pound ten times faster, tilted her head and said:"Are you okay, Sora? Something wrong?" with a worried look on her face. Sora avoided her gaze, afraid of being captivated by her eyes and saying his feelings out loud. Something he was bad at. "Nah, I just meant that you probably could concentrate better if I wasn't there, you know..." he mumbled, looking down at his feet. "Hmm... You really sure?" Kairi replied. "Yeah. Really", Sora confirmed, once again, faked a smile and punched the air. "Oh kay~! Let's start with the homework!"

The three of them settled down, ready to do their homework. "So, uhm... Sora, was it", Roxas said in the awkward silence that they had tried to cover with pretending to be busy with the problems. "Yeah?" he replied, but didn't bother to look at him. He had already ruined his day, for Paopu's sake. Sora was secretly puffing his cheeks, although nobody noticed it, since his nose was pretty much literally stuck on his book. "W-what's your favorite subject?" Roxas asked. Sora sighed, accidently too loud. 'Aww, he's trying way too hard to make up some converstation...' "Ah, sorry, it's okay if you don't want to tell!" Roxas retreated, shaking his hands in panic after hearing Sora's sigh. Then he dived back into his English book – he had already finished maths earlier in the summer. Since Sora hadn't given a reply after a while, Kairi glanced at him, then at Roxas, then back at Sora. She was just about to say something to Sora, but he was quicker.

"Don't have any", the brunet said quietly. "Oh..." Roxas looked at him, then blushed. "M-me neither... Then, what about you, Kai?"  
"Eh, me? Well, I li–" "Kairi likes to read. She's really good at every subject that contains reading", Sora stated real quick. "Sora? Why didn't you let me answer?" Kairi asked, surprised about Sora's behaviour. She had certainly noticed that Sora was acting weird since she came, and she had let it slip, but now it was kind of bugging her. As she figured he wasn't going to answer back to her, she got up, grabbed Sora's thin hand and led him outside, leaving Roxas shouting behind them.  
The sun was finally properly setting, and the whole sky was from yellow to red, depending on how far the sun was. Since Sora lived on an Island, near the beach, the sun looked like it was melting on the sea. The same kind of reaction what happens slowly when you take a scoop of ice cream on your hand. Kairi kept leading him on, and when they finally reached a certain palm-tree that had the kind of curve you could sit on, she turned around and let go of Sora's hand. She inhaled three seconds, paused, opened her mouth... and shouted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Fullshout**

"_What is wrong with you?_"  
She inhaled again, and then smiled. "A~h, it sure feels nice to shout your thoughts out loud. Why don't you try it too?" she continued smiling and winked at him. She climbed the tree and sat on her usual spot. Then she pat the spot beside her gesturing the spiky-haired brunet to join her. Once Sora had joined the club, Kairi started talking.  
"But yeah, Sora, seriously. What _is_ wrong with you? Ever since I came over today, and mentioned Rox–"  
"I like you", Sora cut her sentence. That kept Mr. Silence being around for quite a while. Sora was as red as a tomato, blushing all the way to his ears. He kept his gaze down, and seemed about to break down into tears any second."I... see" Kairi replied, even though she obviously couldn't see.  
"You know, I've been liking you – a lot – since we were four. But all you saw were bunch of other boys, like Riku, when we were five, Tidus, when we reached the age of ten, and seriously, you even had a crush on our teacher at some point, too! Now it's Roxas though, I can see", Sora stated.  
"That's not true!" Kairi protested, even though she was horrible at lying and turned red immediately. "W-well, I can't help it if I like someone. And moreover, how did you know it was Roxas this time?" she screamed. "Am I really that seen-through?"  
"Nah, I don't think that's it. M-maybe I j-j-just look at you t-too much", Sora muttered silently. Although Kairi heard him, and blushed at his words. "Uh, Sora, I'm sorry, but I just see you as a... friend, or a brother... You know?"

"How could I become better? Better for you? So that you would come to like me..." Sora finally said the words he was eager to say for the past 10 years. He took her hands and looked deep into her eyes, those blue eyes which had a violet shade in them, and said with determined eyes and voice:"I'll surely, what ever it takes, become a guy you'll grow to like! Even if it means throwing out all my Disney movies", he said the last part sobbing and his eyes getting teary, but he got the message through to Kairi. The message of her being important to him.  
"Would you really?" she asked. As she noticed Sora's look getting desperate, she quickly added:"I-I didn't mean that you should throw away your beloved movies! I was just double-checking!"  
"I'd do it, if it was for you."  
"Then, would you become someone who could surpass my feelings for Roxas?"  
"Yeah... That's what I've been secretly trying to do all along..."  
"Then... uh... This is actually something I haven't told _any_one yet..." she started, avoiding Sora's eyes. Sora sensed it was something big, something that could have the potential of changing his life forever. He knew he couldn't go back anymore.  
"I..."  
The words were looking for their way to Kairi's mouth. She tried saying them out loud, but it seemed impossible to accomplish, but Sora kept waiting. He couldn't care less about his homework now – even though he had 0% completed. This was a moment he had waited for so long, he wouldn't want to let it slip by.  
"Yes?" he waited.  
"... am an... o-otaku."  
Wait. Had Sora heard right? An otaku? "Wait. What's an otaku?"  
"You don't know what's an otaku?" Kairi giggled. "Well, of course you wouldn't. You're so busy always being surrounded by people everywhere. Well, to put it simple... it's being a fan of anime and manga, and stuff related to it."  
Sora thought the words felt familiar. Then a light bulb appeared on top of his head. "Oh yeah! Tidus and Selphie told me that's the stuff nerdy people do", he begun, but suddenly had the urge of jumping from one thousand meters. How could he just say something like that? "Yeah, that's what people generally think. I mean, those who know about it", Kairi sighed. "It's quite uncommon, especially here at Destiny Island."  
"But why would you keep it as a secret? Just look at you, you're not gross or nerdy anyhow", Sora wondered. "Yeah, I'm probably not, but people tend to think that otakus are that way. So, if I told anyone, they'd quite surely freak out. Thank Paopu you didn't know about it", she laughed in relief.  
"But why? I don't understand it..."  
"Um, otakus sometimes tend to lock up inside their rooms and just watch anime and manga all day, so it could give the image of an over-weighed person who doesn't ever brush one's teeth or bathe", Kairi explained, gesturing with her hands at the same time. Sora loved it when she did that. It was strange how she still did that though, since nobody else on that island did so, but her habit kept living regardless.  
"Oh... I see", Sora mumbled, and dived into his thoughts.

"So... this may sound pretty dumb, but, can you explain, what is anime and manga, really? I've barely heard anything of them, so I don't think it would be fair to be prejudiced", Sora said and let out a honest smile this time, giving a high resolution scene of his perfectly white teeth.  
Kairi gazed at the sunset; the sun had almost fully melted together with the sea, and the first night stars were already visible. "Ah, never mind that! Look, Roxy must be tired of waiting for us!" she said, sounding like she avoiding the question. She jumped down the tree, and was about to run inside, but Sora grabbed her wrist and looked at her with his blue eyes, begging for something.

"No, Kairi, please stay..." he pled while his brows knitted on each other. He didn't wish for anything or -one more than her. But, without a single word, just a puzzled look and eyes forging the word "Sorry" Kairi ran away.

Sora hurled up into a ball, hugging his knees in a girly way. He tried to empty his mind, and then his eyes turned up. "Should I just go and drown..." he murmured. He stood up and took a breath. He felt like no one knew the feeling he was going through. His eyes, his beautiful eyes that everyone admired, started to get teary, making his eyes sparkle. He shed a tear. It rolled down his cheek, and the watery trail was dried off by the sun that was still visible. The tear continued falling, until it fell on the sand. The brunet's beautiful tear had fallen onto the sand. Just like that exact same tear's owner had fallen into a place, that was very dark, where the sun didn't shine. His surrounding people would have called that 'depression'.  
'No! No way! I seriously can't be crying!' Sora thought. And as he thought that, more tears were falling. Inside his eyes was a whole big factory of stuff that created tears. He tried wiping them off, looking at the sky so the air would dry his eyes, he shut them, but the tears didn't stop falling. It was as if they were forcing their way out of his soul's windows. And the curtains of his soul were pointing slightly upwards in about twenty degrees, making him look really sad.  
'I... can't be crying...' he thought, and tightened his grip to his knees.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: The Unexpected Discovery**

A blonde maiden with pure eyes had been observing the situation from afar. She wouldn't call it stalking, but inspiration hit her whenever she was – well – stalking people. She was carrying an A6-sized notebook with her. Once she had observed the situation for a few minutes, she started drawing, predicting what would happen next. Strangely enough, her predictions of the future were right with a ninety-six point four percent accuracy. Or she had just been playing too much Japanese life-simulation games. 'He hasn't improved his artistry and charm enough. The girl obviously likes well-fashioned boys', she thought, letting out a sigh, and started drawing. 'Poor boy. He's most probably going to get rejected at this rate. Moreover, he should know what anime and manga are! He's insulting my hobby...'

The boy-who-hadn't-improved-his-artistry-and-charm-enough cried silently, until his ears detected footsteps. He suddenly started doodling on the sand, hoping that person won't think there was something wrong with him. The footsteps became louder, and he would've checked who the person coming closer was, but he didn't want anyone see his swollen eyes, which still hadn't stop letting out tears. He was intensely looking at the ground, and the closer the person coming closer was, the more pressure Sora was putting on his finger, causing it to scribble deeper and with more power on the sand. The closer-comer stopped his or her steps right beside Sora, and Sora could see the comer's feet. 'A girl huh... This is bad, I don't want any pity from her', he sweated. The girl sort of sat down and placed this small A6-sized paper in front of him. "Tears set free this magical chemical thingy that soothes your system", Sora read from the paper. There was also a high-resolution picture of a boy that oddly looked just like him, and it was made with skill and effort.

"S-so, a-a-are you s-saying te-tears are a g-g-g-good thing?" Sora asked with a pretty much dead voice, which kept cracking and bouncing all the way, making it hard to control.  
The girl quickly opened her sketchbook, wrote something and scribbled something next to the text she had written inside a circle. Once she was done, she ripped the page and placed in on top of the previous drawing. "I heard that from someone, but I've never cried myself, so I'm not sure." Beside the circle was a blonde girl wearing a white sundress, smiling while a cartoon-ish sweat drop was on top of the girl's round, edgy at the chin head.  
"S-say, are y-y-you d-deaf?" Sora replied. It was funny to have a conversation this way. But, thanks to the girl, he hadn't shed any tears anymore. And when he looked at the picture, he couldn't help but to take a glance at the girl.

"Swollen..." – "Pretty..." the girl and Sora said at the same time in unison, and burst into laughter. Suddenly Sora's world had lightened up. "So, I t-take you're not deaf?" "Of course I'm not!" the girl giggled, shaking Sora's hair, making it messier than it already was. "Hey, watch out, the gel I'm using is actually p-pretty exp-expensive!" he warned, and the girl took her hand off. "No wonder it didn't feel so soft..." she pouted.

"On top of that, aren't you getting a bit too close?" he added, squinting his eyes before her. The girl backed off, retreated, and held her hands as her shield. "Uh, sorry! I-It's just that... you look so much like a certain someone... I... like..." she said, mumbling the last few words before blushing madly. She stood up quickly and rushed away. "Hey, wait! What's your name?" Sora yelled after her, but she didn't reply, just ran.  
"What's with me, everyone seems to run away from me..." he pouted, leaning against his hand. He took another glance at the drawings, picked them up and folded them. He held them a while and then put them into his pocket. The sun wasn't visible anymore, and he left the palm tree.

At Sora's house Roxas was left alone when Sora and Kairi had ran outside. 'E~h, what am I going to do? Well, I guess it's better to leave them to their own privacy... It seemed like a lot was going between them... The – what was his name again... Oh right – Sora-person seemed to like Kai...' Roxas let his mind wander, until he came into the decision that thinking about it wouldn't help anything. At least processing in his English homework. 'Ah, this exercise requires a ruler... Forgot to bring mine with me...' He cursed his memory and thought about it a while. 'Oh right, Kai might have one!' He was just about to open Kairi's purse, that was quite big for being a purse, until he stopped himself. 'Wait, isn't this intruding someone's privacy?' he sweat, but shook his head and reached for the purse. 'Stop being such a wimp, Rox, I doubt there's anything too personal here. I mean, it can't be her time of the month... right?' Starting to get second thoughts, he somehow still opened the purse. By now, he was already pretty much expecting there to be something he wasn't supposed to see. And in a way, there was.

'Woah! What's this?' He took the object people would call "a comic book", but it was slightly different. The cover was a lot more colorful than most of books he had ever seen. But despite the cover being shiny and colorful, the pages were all gray. The pages contained mostly some human-like drawings, except they just had a sharp-edged chins and round heads. Their eyes were huge, almost a size of their hands, but the nose along with the mouth were small. Most of the comic was dialogue with another character or self talking, but there didn't seem to be more.

Roxas picked up another book with a different title, and flipped a few pages through it. This one was slightly different, having also some kind of magic and supernatural animals and powers. 'Interesting... is this what Kai likes to read?' Roxas went to the page that seemed to be the first, from the western peoples' view, but quickly noticed the title "STOP!" in the top. "This manga shall be ridden from right to left, starting from the other side of the book." There was also a picture below it, instructing the style of reading. 'He~, this will take a while to get used to', he thought, and turned the first page.  
Soon after Roxas had read the few first volumes of the magical girl -manga, a certain auburn-haired girl walked in, just to find her worst nightmare come true.  
"Hey, Roxas, how are you doing he-" she began, but got no further, until she saw her precious manga in the hands of the boy she liked. Her eyes widened and she tripped on her own feet.

"W-w-w-why are you r-r-reading that?" she asked, pointing at Roxas in panic.

"Why, you ask..." Roxas replied, remembering the main reason he had found Kairi's books. His blood began to boil, causing him to notice himself blushing. "I-I was just looking for a ruler since I k-kind of forgot to bring mine with me, so I thought you m-m-might have one! Sorry!" he protested and bowed deep as an apology.  
The second thing Kairi spotted shortly after coming in was the way Roxas handled her book. He was completely stretching it open, making the cover get possibly wrinkly, and the clueless boy didn't know what was waiting for him. As Kairi noticed his habit, she come close to him and with an extremely quick move, snatched the book from his hands. "You're not handling it gently at all!" she yelled at him in tears. She checked the damage Roxas could possibly have done, but relaxed when she found only one folding. But it was one folding. And before there hadn't been any. This gave Kairi a reason to pout at Roxas, no matter how much she liked him. "Roxas, you're a big meanie..."

"What did I do?" the blond asked while still bowing deeply.

"You ruined the cover!" Kairi yelled, as if it was obvious to the puzzled teenage boy. "Huh? No, I'm positive I didn't!" Roxas gave as a reply, crossing his arms and looking at Kairi as if it was her fault for accusing him. The auburn haired girl sort of growled quietly in frustration, came up really, really close to Roxas' face, and pointed the one single folding intensely. "_Here._ Can. You. See. It. Now?" she asked. 'T-too close!' the boy thought, giving him another moment of blushes, until he pulled back.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to handle it so roughly... I didn't know the books meant so much to you..." the blond sighed while being completely embarrassed. Kairi nodded and smiled in satisfaction. "Well... as long as you understa-"

'Wait, now he'll think I care more for the books than I care for him!' Kairi calculated in her brain. She blushed and took Roxas' hands in hers and stared intensely – once again, she had clearly lost control of herself – in his eyes. "N-no, it's okay! All that matters is that you're safe!" 'Wait, what?' Kairi mentally face palmed at herself. This wasn't a scene where a wife had made her husband worry. "A-ah..." Roxas nodded in confusion. He was about to ask something related, but let it slip. Instead, his focus got locked on the book.

"Oh by the way, can I borrow this?" Roxas asked suddenly, and Kairi thought he was going to shoo her hands off, which were still holding Roxas'. Once again, she felt herself turn red and released her grip. "Oh, I'll remember to handle it with extra care", the boy reassured, when he noticed the worried look on Kairi's face.

"Oh, it's fine", she nodded and smiled brightly after thinking a while. "Just... remember not to read it in public, or when your friends are around, it can cause you a lot of trouble. And do not, in any point of your life, fold the pages or the cover! Especially the cover!" she warned in a motherly way. "A-and... don't tell anyone these are mine..."

"I promise", Roxas smiled, and offered his pinky to be intertwined with her, to make an oath with her. The moment wasn't as dramatic as described, but Kairi felt the happiest in the world, but couldn't stop her mind drifting off to a certain spiky-haired brunet who she had just rejected. Feeling guilty, she knew she wouldn't sleep this night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Blackboard**

"Sora Ilma." a young man with a hair color mixed of blue and gray, which covered half of his face called out loud. The certain boy who's name had been called out loud was snoozing, leaning his head against the wall. The girl behind him poked his back with her pencil, but Sora didn't look like wanting to wake up. Instead, a drool was just about to escape his mouth. The young man who was standing in front of the blackboard sighed and slightly face palmed himself. "Well, first of all, does anyone have a good hair clip? I could really use one now, my eyes are getting itchy..." He rubbed his eyes in a cute way and a girl rushed to the front and handed him a hair clip.

"Oh yes, young man Ilma!" he yelled, while attempting to get his thick hair to be held with one weak hair clip. It was a red strawberry patterned on top of that. After noticing that Sora wasn't going to wake up anytime soon – without help, that is – he walked slowly, in a scary way, to his seat. Everyone's eyes were glued to him, and a tiny string of fear, excitement and awkwardness was all packed up in the classroom. Finally, the teacher slammed his hand on the table so loud that the surrounding people bounced up being startled. "SORA ILMA, WAKE UP IN THIS INSTANT!" He wasn't easy to take seriously at that moment, considering he had a strawberry patterned hair clip, and he didn't look as scary with his face fully visible. A few students chuckled, but an icy glare from the young teacher was enough to silent them.

After a while, Sora's eyes began to slowly progress the waking-up-part. After realizing his surroundings, he sprang up. At least he was awake now. "K-KAIRI!" … or not. He seemed to be half awake, but to the teacher, it wasn't enough. This time, more than a few students chuckled, and this time, the teacher didn't even attempt to silent them with his icy glare. "Please, Sora, don't sleep on my classes", he sighed, showing his disappointment. "A~h, Mr. Zexion!" Sora yelled, pointing at his teacher. "W-wait, did I sleep?"

Zexion sent him a sarcastic fake smile. "Why, yes, did you see lovely dreams about Ms. Meri?" Zexion turned around to see the girl with auburn colored hair in the front row. She was one of the few who hadn't laughed at Sora's waking up phrase. She bit her bottom lip turned her head to the other direction to hide her embarrassment and pretended to be doing exercises from the next page, like an A-student usually did. She was way ahead of all the others. Roxas would've been tied with her, but they had different classes this year.

After the situation had been over and Sora had also got the hang of the things they were going to do, he noticed the person sitting next to him tossed a folded note on his table. After he confirmed that teacher Zexion was being too busy filling up the answer sheet so that the students could check the correct answers, the brunet unfolded the paper. A wind – although it was small – of nostalgia flew through him, since he had seen these kinds of doodles before. "Why are you so sleepy?" the white cat that was drawn was saying in it's speech bubble. Sora mentally chuckled after scribbling an answer and doodling another cat, the difference was just that this one was black, before sending it back to the person who had sent the note to him. He knew very well who this person was.

Once this person received the note and had read the reply, "I had to do ALL the homework all night, remember?" she turned around and their eyes met. They smiled at each other but after the young teacher Zexion had announced that the answers were ready, Kairi turned her head back so that it faced the blackboard.

'Gee, why am I blushing so hard?' she thought in confusion and slapped her cheeks lightly to keep her active. "Next one, Kairi", Zexion asked.  
"H-hai, sensei!" Kairi sprang up, but after a few five seconds of awkward silence, she sat down. "It was the United States that joined in 1906 that basically ended the war..." she mumbled. Zexion looked satisfied though, stood up and clapped. "This is how every student should behave. Rise up when talking! I don't understand why did you use such unknown words as 'hai' or sensei' though..." Students tried to hide their laughter, but most of them failed, and ended up snorting. "Is Kairi an otaku or something?" "No way! She can't be, she's way too good for that!" "Maybe she's half-japanese or something?" People started whispering all around the classroom, and Kairi felt the urge to grab a pick-axe and start digging a hole through the floor. Oh, and get her butt in there.

Sora began to realize the situation that was going on. He didn't understand why the words that came out of Kairi's mouth would've been bad, but he did acknowledge that his classmates didn't really like it. He decided that it was better to act. "Gee, all you people, haven't you heard of the newest video clip in Youtube? It's all about 'Hai, sensei's!" he crossed his arms and faced at the roof, so that people wouldn't see from his eyes that he was lying, and he was horrible at hiding it. The whole class suddenly fell silent, melting the news. "Oh, really... So that was the case", was ridden all over their relieved faces.

After the incident, the teacher gave them their homework, which was – as usual – reading a few hundreds or pages. The pupils all gave a deep sigh. Even though the teacher read incredibly fast, he shouldn't assume his students could do the same. As soon as everyone had marked their homework, or left the whole thing hanging in their memories, since they didn't bother to write it down, they were dismissed by the sound of the bell ringing. The chairs and tables clattered while everyone stood up and and started making noise while walking out of the classroom.

When Kairi had copied the homework from the blackboard, she turned around to spare a glance at her savior-of-the-day. She was still blushing, but it wasn't as visible anymore. "Thanks, Sora", she beamed, while rising and walking towards Sora, who was waiting at the classroom's door. "He, you're welcome. You're going to do some explaining to me in a few minutes, though", he replied. "I'll just go get us something to drink... What would you want?"

When Kairi was just about to answer with her favorite, abnormal Paopu-flavored milk, he saw a certain blond boy walking towards her and Sora. "Guess who! I'll take an ice cream stick, I don't feel like drinking anything today!" Sora felt hands on his eyes and guessed:"May I guess it would be Roxas, the straight A-student, who plays the guitar and is incredible at writing stories?"

Roxas let out a whistle. "Whoa, you've heard a lot of me..." he laughed, and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. 'Yeah, a lot from a certain girl I like', Sora thought while glaring at Roxas' hand. This guy was getting a bit too friendly with him in his opinion.

"Hi Rox", Kairi waved politely and tried to have a serious conversation with her loudly beating heart. "Why, hello, Kai!" Roxas replied, then leaned very close to her, and whispered into Kairi's ear:"I read all the books. Want them back?" But Kairi couldn't hear. She couldn't hear any of this. All she could think about was how close the blond boy was, and how warm his breath was, and how enchanting his voice sounded. If she and Roxas were Pokémon, she would have fainted from Roxas' radiance instantly.

"LET'S GO HAVE THE DRINKS AND ICE CREAM STICKS AND WHATEVER WE WANTED", Kairi yelled mechanically and fled from the two boys, leaving them all confused and puzzled. The wild Kairi escaped.

"Tsk, don't you go flirting with her", Sora threatened the boy next to him. Roxas burst out in laughter. "Wasn't trying! She's just a friend of mine", he said, and suddenly his expression saddened. "We share a secret..." he said, when tried to force a smile on his face.

Roxas noticed a tint of jealousy in Sora, as he saw the brunet's shoulders stiffen and his eyebrows knitting in together mixed with worry. Or so Roxas thought according to his eyes. "Uhm, Roxas, I'll go grab the drinks and yous ice cream with Kai, you just wait here like a good boy", he finished and ran towards the hallway where Kairi had ran as well.

After running for a few minutes, since the only vending machine – filled with graffiti, and was a miracle each time it actually worked without eating up the customers money – was at the grand entrance. And of course, the entrance had to be miles away from the rooms they had their lessons in. It took a while for Sora to find Kairi, and he found her near her shoe locker, which happened to be number 0179. She was all curled up in a ball, and he noticed her trying to cool herself with the bottle of icy water she had managed to get from the stubborn machine.

"Still blushing?" Sora asked as he got closer to his dear Kairi, who let out a desperate sigh. She didn't answer, and the moment was filled with a silence. "Hey, we should get the ice cream and the drinks quick, our lunch break will end in twenty minut-" "... Sorry."

The spiky-haired brunet, who was walking towards the vending machine, didn't stop. He knew what was Kairi apologizing for, but he wanted to confirm it, and so he replied with a "For what?" and entered his change into the slot and pushed the button number seven, which meant the paopu-flavored milk. After waiting for a while, just when the drink fortunately dropped and Sora had lifted it up, Kairi answered his question with a trembling voice:"F-for not liking you..." Even though Sora felt his heart sinking, he tried to act cheerful and ignored what Kairi said. "Oh yeah, what kind of ice cream does Roxy-poxy want?" he wondered out loud and grinned. "Hey, what do you think, Kai?" He turned around, just to find Kairi crying huge tears. The boy's eyebrows were suddenly knitted back together, now just facing upwards, and he ran to the redhead quickly. "Kai... Kai... it's okay..." he mumbled while stroking her hair.

Kairi didn't really react to what Sora said, she just let out a quiet "Sea salt".  
"Sea salt what? I just bought this flavored milk for you, though", Sora tried, and placed the milk beside her. "H-he l-l-l-likes... * hic * s-sea salt-flavored... * hic * ice cream", she was able to murmur, before breaking into even bigger tears, and this time, she cried out loud, too. This cry was heartbreaking for Sora, and without a thought, he hugged Kairi. And in the instant moment, Kairi stopped crying out loud. She couldn't prevent tears coming from her eyes though.

"You don't have to feel sorry. I'm seriously trying to get over you, you know?" He shut his eyes, preventing from tears to fall from his eyes. And they were attempting to that with a huge force. They had this moment, until Kairi pulled off and dried her eyes. "I'm okay", she said and tried to smile, which probably looked like a grimace due to her recent crying. Sora didn't mind it though, and wiped one of Kairi's tears away. Then he stood up and offered her a hand with his usual grin.

'D-did I just... imagine something?' she wondered, when she though she had heard a loud thump coming from somewhere near. She shook it off and offered Sora's help. She still couldn't help but feel guilty for yesterday, but at least Sora told her he was trying to give up on her. She was relieved when he had said that, thinking that she could never like Sora more than as a friend.

"So, sea salt, was it?" "Yep."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: The Creation of the Club**

When the duo had returned to Roxas, he immediately started complaining about their speed. "Seriously, you took freaking ten minutes! That's like nearly a quarter of our lunch break. Now I'll have to hurry if I want to finish this..." he pouted, but when Kairi was distracted to removing the straw out of the plastic that was wrapped around it, Roxas whispered swiftly something into Sora's ear that made him blush a lot and scream "No!" for some reason. Kairi asked what's the matter, but Roxas and Sora replied with a nothing in unison, although Roxas winked at Sora after it. The trio spent the rest five minutes of their break merely chit-chatting about school and occasionaly about how stupid it was to have a double math lesson right off the morning on Thursdays.

Sora was actually quite impressed how well he got along with Roxas; he looked alike to him, he liked similar things with him – minus the Disney-movies, since he didn't mention a word about them – and he laughed and got silent about on the same time. Kairi noticed this too, and was amazed. She hadn't even thought of actual "twins-that-aren't-related-to-each-other" being possible. But strange enough, Sora and Roxas were pretty much identical. 'It's such a shame that Sora doesn't really pay attention to his clothing, he has such good looks as well...' she thought, but blushed madly after it and tried to wave above her head, so that the bubble of thought would fade away.  
One thing about that Kairi hated about herself was that when she had once blushed, her face would stay red for a pretty long time. Even after she had calmed down, her face was still red – even though it wasn't basically possible in biological terms. Once she entered her next class "Yay for literature!" with Sora, everyone kept asking her if she had a fever or something. "No I'm fine", she had to reply to the curious classmates every three minutes.

Again, Mr. Zexion was their teacher, since he taught the students history, literature and other random subjects that included fat books that contained more text than one could imagine. And knowing this young teacher, he would make his students go through the most troublesome tasks, no doubt. Everyone were almost holding their breath, afraid of what he would assign them to do. He let out a sly smirk, cleared his throat and announced:"Since it's October eighth, I shall have you write a short story about _love_." He was looking at the pupils slightly having a devious hint in his eyes, as if he were waiting for their comments. Soon, a random girl in the back row raised her hand with curious eyes. The teacher let her ask. "How does October and love relate? I mean, there's absolutely no string that would give us proof of them being related to each other..." she mumbled. Anyone could recognize from the way she spoke she was one of the best students at literature, and Sora was guessing she was the girl who had won an enormous amount of prizes for their school.

Zexion was pleased with her question, and stood up from his comfortable position of having legs crossed on an extremely comfy office chair that had tiers. He raised his imaginary glasses and started to explain. "Well, you see, February is usually the month of love, having Valentine's Day and all. And February is the second month in the year. And then again, October is the second last month of the year. And since I won't be teaching you on the Spring period, I'll have you write love stories while I can! Get it?" For a second, the few people in the front row, including Kairi, thought they saw a glimpse of girly excitement in their teacher's eyes, but they couldn't believe it, thinking it was impossible for such a person like Mr. Zexion. The rest of the class were just people nodded and tried to look like they had understood it all, when in fact, they were completely lost in his explanation. But they thought that pretending that they had understood was better than having Mr. Zexion explain the relation of October and love for the second time to rest of the class.

Their school actually had quite a few students who absolutely loved writing. They were full of joy whenever they had literature. Of course, this closed Kairi on the outside of the ring. She was abnormally outstanding at everything where she could just plain absorb the facts, even fictions were fine. But she couldn't write, no matter how hard she tried. When she was writing, she kept using the same words, making the story plain and boring. She also could form the sentences on her head, but forming them on paper with a pencil or on a keyboard was an impossible task for her, which made the text hard to read and difficult to understand. So when they were told to write a story, the only bright thing she could see in this exercise was that the subject was love, something she cherished, even though she had never ever had a boyfriend of her own. All she could do was look up to the couples of the movies she saw, and of course, daydream.

While Kairi was thinking her head off for ideas, using all her concentrating power on forming the sentence correctly on the blank paper, Sora was whistling a tune inside his head quite carelessly. But he didn't think being careful in here was that useful, especially since he basically had an auto-correcting mind for words, like those that you use on Open Office Writer. Even though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he had always written love letters for Kairi ever since he was four, and he was moving on his strong waters, having himself experience lots and lots of feelings regarding the subject, after all.

After 45 minutes of struggling, Kairi was pretty satisfied with her work. She had put all of her remaining rips of effort into the story. She even thought she could get Mr. Zexion's compliments this time. Being the perfectionist she was, she wanted to master every possible subject. As the teacher started announcing that their time was up, Kairi quickly finished the last words. 'A bit more than one thousand words...' she thought as she sighed deep. She got disappointed in herself after all. All her classmates were lining up to return the paper. As she glanced at their papers, she noticed many of them had used a lot more paper than she had, and they had even used a tiny tiny font to get all the words fit as well as possible on the paper that just didn't seem to be jumbo enough. She felt a worried look crawl on her face as she stood up and joined the line.

Sora had tactically finished his story just after Kairi, and joined the line just behind her. He knew very well about Kairi's skills, and each time they had to write something she would come cry to Sora after wards. Since Kairi hadn't noticed Sora basically glide behind her, she declared she nearly got a heart attack when she suddenly felt Sora's soothing touch on her head. When she turned around to see his face, she noticed the pearls had already escaped from the jewelery box. All the frustrated feelings she had kept inside her during the time she had held the pencil were all flowing out. She tried drying the tears with her long-sleeved shirt, but for a reason or another, they kept coming. She was starting to get annoyed with herself. All she had been doing recently had been crying or making someone else cry. Sora noticed her uneasiness, and hugged her to make the situation look even slightly more natural, and to hide his beloved's face. And – of course – he was over-joyed by the fact he could hug her, and with a reason, too.

"Hey, Mr. Ilma, Ms. Meri, please return your stories, quickly now", their teacher yelled from afar with his icy glare, but Sora didn't give a Paopu. He just beamed something close to "Teacher, can't you see we're having a moment over here!" He released his grip just to see Kairi's reaction, hoping that she would've reacted even a little. And sure she had. Kairi was having a very, very hard time hiding her blush that had appeared. Sora grinned. He felt proud of himself.

The next second Sora grabbed Kairi's beautiful, perfect wrist, tried to throw their sheets towards the teacher's desk – but instead the papers flew all over the place – and sprinted out of the class while laughing. Even the school's bell, that had announced the ending of the school day, seemed to be cheerful and laughing, instead of miserable, for once.

When Sora realized what had happened, he had already lead Kairi to the other building, where Roxas' school would end any minute now. He slowed down to catch a breath, and Kairi used this opportunity to deeply in- and exhale.

"What was that about?" Kairi asked while breathing heavily. Since she was Kairi, she was still blushing from the previous "moment". Sora couldn't get a chance to reply – for his own good – when Roxas' class had ended and he swam along with the crowd, until he noticed Kairi and Sora, and drifted into their direction. "Kai, Sora, what's up?" Once he noticed Kairi's mad blushing, his eyes widened. "Sora, what did you do to her?" Since Kairi noticed Roxas was obviously getting the wrong thoughts, she jumped into the conversation as quick as she could, to reply:"Nothing." Ju~st a plain "nothing". It wasn't all that clever, considering that Roxas was pretty smart and could probably easily figure out that it wasn't "nothing". 'Gee, anybody could figure it wasn't nothing!' Kairi face palmed herself. This was when Sora decided to save Kairi, once again. "Teacher complimented her~!" he sung. Kairi was relieved that Sora didn't lie. She did get complimented by the teacher, quite often, in fact. 'Last time Mr. Zexion complimented me was... er... like, a few hours ago?'

"Eeh, is that so?" Roxas' eyes twitched curiously, but his clever face quickly turned into a grin. "Right, right, it was nothing!" he turned his back to Kairi and Sora, and while he wasn't looking, she and he communicated with their eyes. 'Don't say a word about what happened just now, o-kay?' and with desperately trying to support her eyes, she tried to gesture some 'Otherwise, you're going to die'-movements. Sora understood the message and nodded. Five seconds later, they both bursted in laughter. "My Paopu, what's wrong with you two today?" Roxas sighed, once he had turned around to see their faces again. He couldn't resist the urge to laugh with them though. 'I'm so happy I've got good friends like them, finally', he thought, while having his whole body run with joy, what was just beyond the normal happiness people feel when they're laughing. "Thanks", he whispered, after the trio had calmed down.

"Hmm, did you say something?" Sora asked, wondering if he had heard something. "N-no, I didn't say anything..." mumbled the embarrassed Roxas. He cursed himself for doing something like that, that might take his new friends away from him the next instant. And yes, he had done it before. Countless times.

"Oh, hey, I forgot my favorite pencil case in the class!" Kairi remembered, while an imaginary bubble popped inside her head, as she tired to recall where did she put it. "Fine, me and Roxy will be waiting outside", Sora replied, ready to leave the building. "Actually, Sora, you go ahead. I'll have to use to toilet. I actually held it for the whole class", Roxas stated. Soon she began jumping on one foot, switching to another. "Go, go already!" Sora responded before he face palmed. "I'm leaving first~!" Sora announced and started walking towards the stairs. Kairi had already slid away, to get her stuff from the classroom, and was sailing through the hallways.

Kairi entered the classroom. "Excuse me~..." But the room was empty. 'No one here, huh.' She approached her usual desk, quickly took her pencil case and packed it. Once she was about to leave, she noticed that on Sora's desk were some of the answer sheets. 'But didn't Sora basically throw them to the teacher?' She picked the pile out of of her curiousness and started reading. There were lots of paper, so reading the whole thing would take quite long.

Meanwhile, in the hallway, a blond boy came out of the toilet. He happened to look out of the corridor's window, and he saw Sora still standing out there by himself. If Kairi had just got her things, she would've been out there in a few minutes, so that left Roxas wonder and ponder if something had happened to her. His worry begun to grow and grow, and just when he was about to go downstairs, he changed his mind and started walking to the other direction, there where Kairi's classroom was.  
Roxas took a peek inside the room, and was relieved to see that Kairi had just gotten into reading this huge pile of paper. He knocked on the frame of the door and let himself in. Noticing that Kairi didn't react, he walked to her and patted her shoulder. "Kairi, we're leaving~", he sung to her ear. Since Roxas was really good at noticing the smallest things, he did know that Kairi liked him. He felt really happy about it, but he just wanted a friend. Ever since he was small, those tiny bits of friendships he had had always fallen apart, and he had become very careful and tended to over-think. So, when he sung in Kairi's ear, he though she would react. But no, still no reaction. He shook her. No reaction. Roxas sighed deep and took the papers from her. Huge reaction.

Kairi begun to shout and yell to give the papers back to her. "No, Roxas, please, give it back!" she begged, jumping around him. Even though Roxas was about the same height, only a little bit taller, he was still able to keep the sheets to himself. "Roxa~s!" And that was when she came to realize. Roxas. It was Roxas. It was Roxas who was right now in front of her. And what did she do? She was jumping around him trying to reach for the papers. She stopped jumping and looked down at her feet. Roxas, instead, was doing his best to prevent himself from dying out of laughter. He hadn't laughed this much in a long time. His tummy was aching, but he couldn't stop laughing and soon found himself lying on the floor and rolling. Oh, and laughing, of course. "I-I can't breathe~!" he laughed. For a few more minutes, Kairi looked down at her toes, regretting her stupid actions, but since Roxas was laughing so hard, and as you know, once one starts laughing, it's hard not to laugh yourself, Kairi soon found herself rolling on the floor as well, positioned next to Roxas. When their eyes met, they both burst into laughter again.

There they were, laughing, having the most hilarious time of their life. And that was until a certain brunet came in. You can just imagine how jealous he felt. He wanted in. He wanted to laugh with them too. But he didn't have the time to feel jealous, since he noticed the papers that Roxas was still holding. His eyes were reflecting the shocked feelings that he felt. 'Are they laughing at my story? Was it that bad?'

"You guys are having such a fun time."

That was the sentence that cut the laughing two students. Kairi and Roxas rose to find Sora glaring at them. 'Gee, now I've done it', Roxas thought and bit his lip. He wanted to root for Sora. And now he felt like he had betrayed him. "Sora, this is what it looks like-", he tried, and Kairi tried to support him. But Sora's response was what shocked them.

"Was my story _that_ bad?" he yelled and turned around. He didn't leave though. He wanted to have a mature discussion of things, although he couldn't face them. He had already shed a few tears. He couldn't help it. He decided not to cry over a story though. He wiped his tears, but didn't turn to face Kairi and Roxas.

'The story?' Kairi communicated with her eyes. 'So, it wasn't about us?' Roxas replied. 'I guess not...' she exhaled. "Oh, the story!" Kairi remembered. She ran to Sora, grabbed his shoulders and turned him around. She had this crazy and excited look in her eyes. "It was the most romantic story I've ever read! It was the best!" she shouted. Sora was amazed. "W-was it that good?" he started to grin. He felt super happy. "It was marvelous!" Kairi replied. 'Yess!' Sora punched the air.

"Wait, was it really good?" Roxas glanced at the text, and Sora, along with Kairi, walked back to Roxas. "Yeah, read it!" Kairi insisted. In a few minutes that consisted an excited silence, Roxas' eyes begun to widen. Once his eyes had widened to the maximum amount, he faced Sora and said:"This language! It's so beautiful! You've used just the right words and the plot is really interesting!" He continued praising the text. Sora was even more amazed that a few minutes ago. "I-it can't seriously be that splendid..." he blushed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I'm sorry, but it just is", is what he got for a reply. The trio was all about smiles at this point. They started discussing about the story, and they all enjoyed doing it.

"Hey, I've gt an idea! Let's start a literature club!" he punched the air. The red-haired girl and the brunet boy with gravity-defying hair stared at Roxas with their jaws dropped to the ground. "Hey, your jaws dropped", Roxas remarked playfully and bent down to pick up the imaginary jaws. "So, uh, what do you say?" he asked, while blushing and beamed his killer smile. Of course, he himself didn't know it was a killer smile, but that's what every girl would've said if they saw it. And that was how Kairi got shot down. She couldn't resist it. And she agreed. "Oh my Paopu, that's a brilliant idea!" she smiled. "Er, I don't know", Sora said instead. He crossed his arms and stared at the roof. "I mean, what do we get out of it?" he asked once he faced Roxas again. "We don't have to just write stories there. We can just treat it as our own private club where we can just relax and have fun." Sora really didn't think he wanted to be in a club. Once he got home, he met up with Riku, and he wouldn't get to meet him otherwise, since Riku was a year older. And because he was a year older, he had lunch and other breaks on different time than Sora did.

"You know, I can't see Riku if I'll go to the club every day. Same goes for you, Kai", he pointed out. Kairi pouted and crossed her arms like Sora, but couldn't help agreeing with him. Riku was her best friend, too, and she liked him a lot, so choosing between a club where she could meet Roxas and spare time where she could meet with Riku was extremely hard for her.

"Then, why don't you just lure him in the club, as well?" Roxas chuckled. "Although luring someone might be a bit challenging. Especially if you mean that Riku Hiekka, that kid who's a year older than us." This time Kairi and Sora both chuckled. "That's him. But I'm sure he'll agree. So yeah, I'm in too", Sora finally replied to Roxas' question.

"That's great!" Roxas punched the air. "I'll go talk to the school committee tomorrow", he continued. His eyes were now filled with a bunch of excitement, and his mouth had been forming a big smile for a while now.

"Right. And me and Sora will talk to Riku once we get home", Kairi remarked. They were all about smiles, as they walked happily out of the building.

* * *

Author's Note: Yay for the first 5 chapters to be completed! :D Actually, this chapter got surprisingly long, but I tend to make a list of stuffs that need to be included in the chapter, and I added abnormally lots of stuff this time ^^; Sorry~... Also, I kinda dislike making Author's Notes, because they just add unnecessary amount of words, and that kind of gives a wrong impression, esp. if you're reading based on the amount of words... Well, anyway, I really hope you like it, because this ish my first actual fanfiction that I'm excited about xD I've done a lot of stories before, and I once tried writing a Tales Runner fanfic, but I really didn't have the motivation to continue it =w='' Owh, and please go easy on me, I'm more of an artist than a writer – as already mentioned in my profile.

And about this chapter/story, I'm sorry that there's a lot of crying and melodramatic stuff, but I obviously kind of like it, since I liked AnoHana( the anime ). So yeah, this story ish obviously a Slice-of-life/Romance/Drama/slightly Humor -kinda fanfic. I'm really looking forward to a few reviews – although I doubt I'll get any ^^;

SPOILER ALERT: On the next chapter I'll get a certain blonde girl in, as well as more Riku~

/Lolidrop(z)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Blonde**

While walking home, Sora and Kairi talked about lots of things. They wondered how could they talk about such a thing to Riku. When they were together with him, Riku was always the leader. He was always the one deciding what were they doing. That was the main reason Riku wad become o distant to the duo. Every time Riku decided on the plan for the day, it was all about action. Whenever Kairi and Sora started talking together, Riku jumped in, just to stop their conversation and give them new instruction to their "new game" they were playing. So, to both Kairi and Sora, the walk back home seemed to take forever.

Beep!

"Ah, Riku sent me a text", Sora noticed. He unlocked his phone quickly and opened the message, while Kairi was observing the situation next to him. "What does it say?" "He tells us to come to the paopu-tree", Sora replied. "I see~... We three haven't been there together since forever!" she beamed, and added a cute, energetic smile after it. "That's right... Yesterday we went to play hide-and-seek in the forest, the day before yesterday we went to a café with knight equipment and claimed to be part of an aristocrat family", Sora chuckled. "That guy sure comes up with strange ideas." Kairi giggled. "Yeah, but it's always fun around him, right?" "Yup, that's for sure."

In about five minutes, Sora and Kairi had thrown their school bags at their houses and were running towards the island where the paopu-tree was supposed to be. Once they reached it, they noticed that something was missing.

"Hey, where's Riku?" Kairi asked, once she had examined the surroundings. That's right, Riku was missing. "Now that's strange. Wait a second, I'll give him a call", Sora reassured. But before he could start dialing the certain silver-haired youngster's number, the very boy hugged Kairi from behind. "Kyaa!"

"Hey, hey~!" Riku greeted them. Kairi turned around to see Riku's face, and once she did, Riku gave a peck on the auburn-haired girl's forehead. "Happy seventeenth birthday, Kai", he winked. At this point, Sora felt like digging a hole beneath him. 'I actually forgot Kairi's birthday! How could I?'

"He, thanks, Riku, you're the first one to say that today", Kairi thanked politely. Riku gave his best buddies a strange look, and then glared at Sora. "Sora, it can't be that you forgot Kairi's birthday?" He squinted his eyes in suspicion. Sora obviously tried to avoid his stare, but as usual, he failed at acting and apologized to Kairi.

Kairi looked confused at first, but accepted Sora's apology. "We're even", she said. Once again, Riku gave the look for the both of them. "Did... I miss something?"

Sora sighed. "Well, Riku, since you never ever want to talk and just prefer actions instead of planning, how could you be on track of stuff? Oh, and Kairi, fine by me", he remarked and titled his head. Riku's jaw dropped and he decided to change the plan for that day. He cleared his throat and announced:"Ahem, change of today's appointments. Since I just noticed that what you said was true, I guess it should be better if we just took a nice, long chat today. Here, by the paopu-tree." He pat the curve part and sat there.

Sora and Kairi glanced at each other, sending the message 'Yes! A chance!' to each other by their eyes. They both agreed to what Riku said and joined the club.

Once they settled down, Riku being in the middle, he leaned down to his right, where Sora was, and whispered:"Did you confess?" Blush found it's way to Sora's face and he accidentally yelled out loud his answer. "Y-Y-YOU KNEW?" Kairi tilted her head as a gesture to show that she wasn't following. "Gee, Sora, if Kairi was slightly more aware of this stuff, the whole world, including her, would know", he sighed. "Or... then it's just me!" he added after wards, and winked to Sora. The boy who Riku was talking to, puffed his cheeks and crossed his arms playfully.

"Well, how's things with you, Riku?" the auburn-haired girl asked to change the subject, since the air was getting tense. She had no idea what was the whispering between Sora and Riku about, but it seemed something like "guys' talk", and she appreciated her own "girls' talk" with Selphie, so she knew how to respect those moments. Unlike a few boys she knew.

"My grades are getting worse..." Riku complained while leaning slightly back.

Awkward silence.

"Oh, yeah, and I got a girlfriend!" he remembered. Suddenly Sora's and Kairi's interest was regained, Mr. Silence was shoved away and the duo begun shooting questions towards their "older brother". "Wow-wey-wow-w-what?" Sora spat. Not the most preferred way to start an interview, but he was literally speechless. So Kairi noticed she could probably start. "Who is it?" she asked with enthusiasm. "It?" eyes twitch. "Some more respect towards her, please."

"Sorry, I mean she! Who is she?" Kairi tried again. A hint of smile was dancing on Riku's lips, as he replied. "You don't probably know her, although she's going the same grade as you two. It's Xion", he said. "Xion...?" that was Sora. Kairi thought about it for a while. 'Where have I heard that name before? I'm sure I've encountered it somewhere, some time...' Then, a light bulb was seen on top of Kairi's head. "Oh, Xion, she's on the same class as Roxas!"

Sora looked at Kairi as if she were slightly crazy. "How have you heard about her?" "Ah, well, yesterday I happened to take a look at the list of grade two, class A's name list, when I was checking which class I was going to be in", she explained, as if it was the clearest thing in the world. "Talk about good memory", Sora mumbled, and Riku gave his nod as an agreement to this.

"But, I don't know anything else about her, so I guess I'll have to ask either you or Roxas about her", she added, finishing her short speech.

"She's... really calm", Riku stated.

"... Calm? And that's why you started dating her?" Sora asked. "No, there's more to it, but it just feels so frustrating trying to explain it, the list of stuff would be like infinite scrolling on Tumblr... you know?" His friends let out an "oooh", and accepted his explanation. "But yeah... how about you guys? How's it going?" Obviously Riku was trying to avoid the subject, but it didn't really matter to either Kairi or Sora, because they had grown up noticing that Riku wasn't all that good at talking, and he would rather prefer having people notice his feelings from those little actions that he did.

"Me, Kairi and this dude from class A, Roxas, were thinking about creating a club... and now that we're talking about it... would you want to join?" Sora asked quickly, thinking that Riku would refuse it right away. But instead, he got a simple "Why?" as an answer, which was something he hadn't had expected. "Why...? Well, we need at least four members to create a club... and if we start going to a club, me and Sora, we might not be able so see you at all... being in different grades and all..." Kairi tried to explain, once again gesturing with her hands.

"No way", Riku said, and started laughing. "No way, as in?" "No way, as in, I'm not going to join your little club." "...oh..." "Wait, what?" The dark-haired duo was all confused and puzzled. "Why not?" "Well, because you, and you, and that random kid there will probably just treat it as your own laziness club where you just relax and do your own private things... There's no action!" Riku protested. And what he read from Kairi's and Sora's faces, he had hit their spot, and gave them his smirk.

The duo gave up and exhaled deep. "Sorry guys, but you'll have to look for another member", Riku apologized, now feeling slightly guilty from his decision. "No, no, it's alright, we'll manage", they said. They were really disappointed, but tried their hardest not to let it show from their faces. "But, is it okay with you if we won't see you, possibly just on the weekends?" Kairi asked with concern. "Honestly, when I started dating Xion, which was almost a month ago, I was concerned if _you_ two would mind if I started playing with Xion instead. But now that you've got your own games, I guess I've got mine. But I wouldn't mind meeting up with you two every weekend!" he smiled. For a silent guy like him, he sure had talked a lot. As they noticed that it was almost dinner time, they all headed towards their own homes, feeling relieved to get all that random stuff out of their chests.

* * *

Kairi was really excited by the idea to get a club. A small meeting every day after school. Their own thing that only they shared. Her hopes were all destroyed by Riku. She decided to act like a mature lady and tried not to blame it on him. She was just wondering about how could she face Roxas tomorrow and just tell him that they couldn't form a club. 'A~h, this sucks...'

She was lying on her bed, and turned around, so she could face the roof. At times like these, she really hoped she would've had Sora's room. She loved the star decorations that were sticking on his roof. Sora didn't really like or dislike them being there, but Kairi was sure that if she'd ask for the decorations, Sora would surely refuse. She raised her hand and opened that tiny palm and covered the lamp's light which was lighting the room. She was just about to snuggle into her blankets and get ready to sleep, once she heard her phone beep. Of course – text message.

* * *

Sora: Kai, u still up? :)

Kairi: Yh but im planning 2 sleep soon -

Sora: :o Oh, sry then.

Kairi: No no its ok. :D Didchu have something to talk about o-o

Sora: Well... I just wanted to apologize about the fact that I forgot ur birthday.. T.T

Kairi: Its fine alredy. ^^, I think ill hold my b-day party next sunday anyways. Oh, that reminded me, I have to send the invitation to evry1 :O

Sora: xD sure thing. … am I invited? :'

Kairi: The hawk, ofc u r! how could I not invite u ò0ó

Sora: Whew, I'm glad :3 nad I thought that maybe u were worrying about the club.

Sora: and*

Kairi: Eh, slightly =.=

Sora: Riight. Dont worry about it, we'll get sum1 in! :D

Kairi: Possibly.. well im going to sleep nao, im so tired x.x

Sora: K then, gnight 3

Kairi: Yush, u 2 3

* * *

Kairi set alarm clock to 6:30. She quickly wrote down a hasty invitation to their house next Sunday on her phone and sent it to multiply people. She double-checked her books once more. 'French, Chemistry, Life, Math, Arts... although we don't need books for Arts or Life, so I guess that makes only three books for tomorrow...' she packed her bag with the books and yawned. 'Guess I'll head to Pokémon Dreamworld now.' And with that, she fell asleep.

The next morning, when she woke up to her alarm clock, she felt like turning it off, turning around and sleeping some more. Although she couldn't, for two things. Firstly, Mr. Luxord taught them French right off the morning, and even though he was otherwise pretty laid-back, he hated people who were late. And second off, she heard trucks and people moving heavy furniture around. Kairi glanced out of her window. The house on the opposite side of the street had been empty for quite a long time now, but it seemed like someone had moved in. She sailed to her own private bathroom, since she was living with only her father – who had his own bathroom as well – and picked her toothbrush. After brushing her teeth she did some other daily things. When she got back to her room to pick her daily clothes, she frowned at the fact that all her clothes were in the laundry basket. 'Paopu. At times like these I really wished we'd have some school uniforms...' She tried to find some pieces that might match with each other, but couldn't find anything, so she ended up wearing mismatching blue shorts and a hot-red tee. She tried to find some accessories that could make the outfit work, but couldn't find that many, and just applied her light makeup and chose a blue necklace.

"Kairi, food's ready!" the girl heard his father yell and glided to kitchen. The smell of bread was lingering in the air while the warm colors welcomed her. "No way... bread again?" she complained, which her father disliked without a doubt. "Well sorry, but I don't have the time to go shopping until tomorrow, so you'll have to live with it. Daddy's busy with work, after all." Kairi applied some butter on the bread and started chewing it slowly, disliking the dry texture.

"Oh, right. Dad, I'll be holding my birthday party on Sunday, here", Kairi announced. "Is that okay with you?" Kairi's father's eyes twitched, but he didn't say anything. "Dad?" Kairi's father took a sip of coffee, then carefully placed it next to his own plate. "Fine. As long as it's only a few people and you'll clean after wards. You know how I hate housework", he finally said as an answer. Kairi mentally punched the air and shouted out of joy. She finished her bread quickly, trying not to mind it and drank her paopu-milk. "Thanks for the food."

"Wait, Kairi, there's some new kid that moved into the house opposite ours. I had a chat with their family and agreed to get you to walk their daughter to the school. She's the same age as you", he explained. Kairi sighed. She didn't understand why did his father have to tell her these things in the last minute. And the next second, she became mad at her father. She wouldn't certainly want to show the new kid the places. "Dad, I'm not in middle school anymore! And neither is she! Why do I have to show her around?" she yelled and then ran to grab her bag and ran to the door. She put her shoes on and whispered. "Ittekimasu."

She would've ran all the way to school, unless she would've bumped into a blonde girl who was right behind the door. "Whoa!" The blonde looked startled and backed away. "Er, uhm, I'm probably at the wrong house..." she mumbled and began to slowly take steps backwards. Her simple white one-piece complimented her fair skin, and her blue eyes sent signals of innocence and purity. Kairi was mesmerized by her, and couldn't find the ability to speak until the blonde had turned around. "No, wait, uh, who are you?" She succeeded getting the one-piece turn around, and the two girls were now looking each other in the eyes. "Me?" she looked around herself, but since there weren't any other people, she assumed that Kairi was talking to her. "I'm Naminé..." she whispered, placing a hand over her chest, about on the point where the heart is, and Kairi was wondering if she had heard right. "Nam...iné?" she asked awkwardly. Once the certain girl named Naminé nodded and smiled, Kairi felt relieved and took a few steps forward. She took her hand out of the shorts' pocket to shake Naminé's hand, and the very girl grabbed her hand with both of her own. "So, you're probably that Kairi?" and Kairi gave a smile. "You're so pretty..."

Kairi blushed, but shook her head and tried to get rid of it, which was obviously impossible. Especially if it was Kairi we were talking about here. "Er, have I seen you somewhere?" Naminé asked and tilted her head to the right. Kairi shook her head again and replied:"Well, other than the fact that I look a bit like you and vice versa, I don't think we've met before..." "Oh, I see..." "But anyway, shall we walk to school?"

Suddenly Kairi had changed her mind. She liked this girl. Her new neighbor, and had the feeling that they'd grow very close in the future. On their walk, Kairi told a few basic things about their school, the schedule and the lunch breaks and the vending machine. She also told about her friends and a little information about the teachers. Naminé's eyes blinked, and for once, Kairi felt like those eyes would show interest in anything. Once she had explained the basics to Naminé, she looked like she had something to say. 'She's so cute and shy~...' Kairi thought and smiled at her thought. "Any questions?" she asked, to help Naminé talk.

"A-are there any clubs?"

That was the moment when Kairi found that small candle of hope light up in her heart. She would've wanted to advertise the club she wanted to be in. She wanted Naminé to be in it too. She didn't want to give Naminé up to some other random club. She would've probably just told Naminé a lie, that there weren't any other clubs than this one club she wanted to be in. But. Kairi didn't want to be pushy. So she honestly told Naminé about the massive amount of clubs and the large variety that they had. "B-but, there's one club that... I'd kinda want you to be in..." she muttered and poked her fingers against each other. "J-just as a by the way."

"Really? Which one is it?" "It's the literature club. We haven't made it yet, because we only have three members and you need four to make the club official..." Kairi said and continued the poking and staring at her toes. "Literature club...? Kairi, I'm sorry, but I don't know..." Once Kairi heard those apologizing words, she grabbed Naminé's hands and begged her. "No, please, join it! I guess you may not like literature, but my friend, who's going to be in it, said that we don't have to write stories in there! We could just treat it as our own little club... Please!" Naminé was sort of shocked by this, but seeing how desperate the auburn-haired girl was, she basically didn't have any other choice than join the club. This time literally.

Naminé was wondering if she would come to regret her decision. But once she took a glance at Kairi's overjoyed face she thought that taking the risk was worth it. At least for now.

"Yey!" Kairi screamed out of joy and glomped(?) Naminé. "Arigatou gozaimasu~!"

But that one sentence changed a lot of things. Including the way Naminé would look at Kairi from this moment and forward.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Semi-polite Bow**

"K-kairi, could it be... Could it be... that..." Naminé was struggling through her words. Kairi knew what she was going to say. 'Bye bye, new club member and a possible new best friend', she thought and stuck her eyes closed tightly. She did not want to hear this.

"... you... You're my soul mate?" the blonde finished her sentence. Suddenly, Kairi's urge to hear came back. The confused feelings were now mixed with relief, and were continuing to be mixed inside an ice cream machine. "S-soul mate?" she spat with some effort. This time, Naminé was the one to grab Kairi's hand and looked deep into her mesmerizing purple-ish eyes while her own were sparkling. "Yes! You're an otaku, deshou?" she yelled with an extra amount of enthusiasm. The surrounding people, who were unfortunately students who went to their school, were practically gasping out loud.

"What?" Kairi screamed, but right after it, she pulled Naminé gently towards the nearest lone corner and started whispering. "Keep it down! They don't really appreciate otakus here..." Despite what she had just said, Naminé jumped to hug her fellow soul mate. And she started yelling again. "I'm so happy~!"

Kairi tried not to gather attention and tried to speak to the hyper girl who was hanging from her neck. Just when she thought about using force to get her off, she came to her senses. Naminé let go of Kairi, and when Kairi thought she got sick or something related, Kairi noticed Naminé's eyes had widened. "N-naminé? Are you okay?" Suddenly the blonde young girl before her sat down and bent forward. "Sorry!" she shouted. She kept her head on the ground, and kept apologizing. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to go that far... I was just so happy, and I kind of … lost myself... Sorry!" and with heartbreaking tears, she started sobbing.

Kairi felt now more guilty than ever, for such a little thing, and she didn't even think she did anything. All she did was just tell Naminé that their kind wasn't appreciated around there, and then her new friend became happy, and suddenly she was apologizing. Kairi didn't know what to do. And she was completely speechless. And speechless in a not-so-positive way. "Wa- no I-... We- You-..." She desperately tried to mumble a few words but made no progress at all. Naminé still had her head stuck on the ground, when a certain silver-haired boy walked up to the two girls. "Huh? Kai, what're you doing? And who's this?" "Eh? Riku? Well, er, she's my new neighbor Naminé... and... uhm... things sort of turned out this way... long story", Kairi explained shortly and sweat dropped. She tried to casually support her speech with a gesture of scratching the back of her head and smiling awkwardly. "Heeh..." Riku noted and bent down to Naminé's level.

"Hey, miss, you shouldn't do that in public. It's not that cute, you know", Riku mumbled, while staring Naminé's blonde hair. Soon, after a short consideration, Naminé rose just the amount where she could be considered being in a sitting position. "Good girl, good girl", the silvery boy smiled, and patted Naminé's head. While he was patting, someone yelled out his name from afar. He stood up, waved Kairi and Naminé a good-bye and ran towards the person who yelled his name. Finally, the blonde stood up as well, and grabbed the end of Kairi's short sleeve. "W-who was that?" she asked and looked down to the ground, as if she was actually talking to the hard ground. Kairi tried to bend down a little, so that she could see her new friend's face. 'Yup. Burning red', Kairi sighed. "You know, you don't have a chance.

That person who called him just now was his girlfriend..." she gestured along with the sentence.

Naminé's eyes widened a little, and she held her hands in front of her, unconsciously making the x-letter with them. "No, no! I don't like him!" "Huuh, then, what is it?" Again, Naminé started staring at her toes. "J-just who does he think he is, touching a girl's hair..." she muttered and puffed her cheeks. But as she recalled Kairi's presence, she gave her a care-free smile. "Oh, no, nothing... I just kind of dislike it when boy's touch me", she stated. "Ooh, a phobia?" Kairi asked. "Hmm, well, it's not like that either... I don't know, it just kind of annoys me..." the blonde remarked, faced at the sky and closed her eyes out of slight frustration.

The sky was covered with clouds. It was as if it was still sleeping, using those soft Swablus as it's blanket. A few birds flew through it, and the girls – now that Kairi took a look at the sky as well – almost didn't notice the airplane that flew by, as they were so used to them. "Well, shall we continue? The school's not far from here", she said once she awoke from her short daydream and reached out for Naminé's hand. And together with new energy the auburnette had found, they sprinted all the way to the school gates, even though Kairi wasn't really considering that Naminé might not be that good at physical education. And she wasn't. As soon as they reached the gates, Naminé basically fell on the ground and panted her lungs out. "A~h, I've never ran that much..." she complained, while Kairi didn't sweat anywhere. The auburn-haired girl moved her weight on her right leg and placed her hand on her hip. "Well, hanging continuously with a certain third-grader really keeps you fit", she laughed and added a peace-sign after wards. Soon they both laughed and Kairi helped Naminé up. The one who was getting helped up had never experienced such. She thought that she won't be able to make any friends for the first few months, and she had already a plan and schedule how to spend all that time that others would spend by hanging with their friends. That schedule was actually all about working out, doing homework and house chores, and studying. And she really thought she could use some more reading. As well as drawing.

The duo continued joking and fooling around, while they entered the school building.

Time flew quickly. Soon Kairi realized she had already entered her first class, and she acknowledged the situation. Her new neighbor, friend and look-alike, was also going to be her club member. _And_ a classmate. "So, miss, please introduce yourself to the class", Mr. Luxord asked and sat down on his desk, and glanced at Naminé, same as what the others were doing. Some of the students weren't looking at all, and some of them were doing something more; examining. This was a negative part of being a teen-aged person. Some people would look at you, and then decide whether to look you up or down. And for most of those kinds of people, they were looking down. Basically on all the rest of the world. But fortunately Kairi and Sora weren't one of them. They smiled gently at the new person, welcoming her on their own ways. But when Kairi turned her head around something like ninety degrees to left, she didn't find that expression she was waiting for on Sora's face. His jaw was all the way around the floor and his eyebrows were facing each other, while his eyes were practically popping out.

Seeing this, Kairi tilted her head and tried to use her eyes – and some hand gestures under her desk – to get the message through to Sora. "What is it?" Sora couldn't even notice this message, even though Kairi was now mouthing the words and was completely obvious and seen-through. "Kairi, please stop facing somewhere else while our new missy's introducing herself", Mr. Luxord sighed and face palmed. Kairi's face was soon flustered and she mumbled a quick apology. 'I guess Sora's explanation will have to wait...' she thought as she puffed her cheeks and tried to be as calm as possible to hasten the blush's fading. 'That reminds me, I should quickly tell Riku about my... hobbies, any time soon...'

Naminé nervously opened her mouth and tried to appear calm, tried to keep her shoulders relaxed, tried to smile naturally, but her trembling feet and hands begged to differ. Her hands were stuck on the hem of her one-piece, and she could feel the sweat that came along with the trembling. "I-I-I'm N-n-n-naminé... Ple... pleased to meet you all", she stated and bowed semi-politely, which made everyone go all "Oooh" and "Wooow" with their mouths all open. This made Naminé quickly grow confident, and she suddenly felt a lot more comfortable than when she first took the step into her new classroom. "I just moved here from another world, and Kairi-" she nodded at the certain girl and continued "has kindly become my very first friend here. I also moved into the house near hers!" she beamed cheerfully, now almost all her nervousness faded away. "Oh, I also like arts and I draw a lot on my spare time. Along with drawing, I like man-" she was about to continue, but a certain auburnette had hopped out of her seat and "accidentally" glomped Naminé, desperately trying to cover the blonde's mouth. This caused quite a big noise in the classroom, and everyone kept thinking what the Paopu was going on. "A MOSQUITO. MOSQUITO", Kairi tried, as she stood up and offered her fellow classmate a hand. The highly confused classmate accepted the hand, but as Kairi pulled her up, she swiftly whispered a few quiet words into Naminé's ear as she "casually passed by" to get back on her seat.

The words Naminé heard were "Not. A. Word. About. Anime and manga."

Once all the confusion that was lingering in the air had calmed down, Naminé continued. "What I was saying, that along with drawing, I really like Japanese-" an imaginary lightning hit her, when she realized what Kairi had just told her about that taboo. Kairi herself was just as tense as Naminé when she first told her name to the class. She really thought Naminé had already forgotten her advice, but fortunately, she hadn't. "... Japanese manufacturer of medical and graphic imaging", she explained, although she noticed that no one was really following her anymore, and wanted to slap herself right after. Kairi instead, sighed out of relief and showed her fellow soul mate her thumb and winked playfully. "Nice save", she mouthed. Naminé responded to this by finally letting go of her dress and showed a low peace sign back at Kairi.

"I love the sunny atmosphere around here, and everyone seems so relaxed and seems to know everyone. I want to be a part of the big ring surrounding everyone and -thing. Once again, pleased to meet you all", she said casually, ending her introduction speech. The teacher took a glance at the class and then gazed back at Naminé, and the teacher was the one, who started clapping, so that everyone else would start clapping as well. The atmosphere was truly nice by the time the clapping ended, and Naminé couldn't have been happier with her speech. With a smile she couldn't hide any way, she was sent to her seat – row four, seat named A – and the lesson went pretty normally, considering that the students had just come from summer vacation.

Luxord taught all the languages and this uncommon subject named life. Life was a subject where the class would usually discuss all – obviously – life-related topics, for example, the future, or one's true self, or such things, or they would play these fun games. This was another subject that most of the students really liked, partly because there would never be any homework, and just blabbering and thinking about your own life, personality, future and possibilities could really be very entertaining. But anyway, Naminé was really, really bad at every possible school subject, excluding those rare ones that didn't really need a lot of memorizing. During the lesson, she had to ask the meaning of certain words several times, and had a hard time pronouncing the words, but with the help of Mr. Luxord, she soon could reach for the cart that had been going ten times faster in front of her. She was truly lucky that the Island didn't really have mean teachers that could be really good teachers at the same time.

Truthfully, Naminé had no idea school would be this difficult. But then again, she had just been to an easy-going school that mostly consisted of delinquents that were basically holding the power during the lessons. This meant that they were always making so much noise no one could really hear anything the teacher said, and messing with everyone, everything and anyone and anything. To put it simple, Naminé's school years, up until now, had always been a chaos.

The teacher was having everyone listen to some example sentences on how to say "I'll be leaving" as politely as possible, our blonde little girl was already yawning and spinning her mechanic pencil with epic skills like it was no biggie at all. She was glad they didn't have to do any pairs work, since she thought she was horrible at communicating. Naminé was bad especially in foreign languages, and all they were doing during the one hour and twenty minutes were exercises from the book. This could mean they were practicing vocabulary or something else related to grammar, that had possibly been forgotten on the summer vacation, or then the certain teacher was way too relaxed. But for Naminé, it was quite good and fortunate, since she could just check the dictionary any minute.

Naminé grew bored real quick.

Soon she was so bored, that she decided to ignore pretty much the whole rest of the lesson to take a good look around her own desk. Next to her, was a fairly tanned boy. But when she took a better look around for other people, she noticed that almost everyone had a deeper tan than average. 'Ugh, I'm sticking out like this... I guess I'll have to keep going outside, it's sunny here almost everyday anyway...' she fore-planned and continued her stalk- observing. Behind her was a girl with glasses, which made her automatically an intelligent person for Naminé, and she thought she knew right away, who she'd come crying to when she would fail her exam. Her only friend, who was brand new and she wasn't sure if she could keep her, was way far ahead basically on the other side of the room. And the room was quite minimalistic. Frankly, Naminé thought it was sort of refreshing. Her own room was neatly full of everything, so having nothing more than stuff that's needed, was a nice change. She couldn't guarantee that the room would stay this simple and clean for the whole year though.

The floor tiles were all white. The four walls they were in, were all white. Except for the black minimalistic lamps, the roof was all white, too, even though Naminé wasn't really expecting the roof to be any other color. 'To sum it all up, if there weren't the desks, the lamps and the blackboard, this room would just be white...'

Even though Naminé adored the color white, and not just adored, she loved it, white was the color that got her excited and inspired, more than none other color, she wanted to paint the walls with a sunset that would match every evening. The room was like an empty canvas anyway. The whole room was really tempting the little girl now. She would've stood up and started looking for some paint and a big brush, if the bell wouldn't have rang. In an instant, she realized she hadn't followed at all. 'Ugh, and it's really important to me right now, if I actually want to keep up with everyone else...' she thought and frowned at her daydreams.

* * *

Sora was very curious about the transfer student. She seemed to be close to Kairi and also the other way around. Our little brunet would've asked Kairi, if she wouldn't have been so busy copying the homework pages into her tiny little notebook, where she usually had all her schoolwork assigned and planned. So, without left with any other options, Sora marched bravely towards one of the many last seats. "Hi", he said and waved casually. Naminé, who was just about to roll on the floor due to her frustrated feelings, lifted her head to see an easy-going boy with a huge grin on his face. Since she didn't reply, Sora continued doing the talking. "Hey, uh, you know, have we met somewhere, sometime?" he said and tilted his head. Anyone would've thought he looked extremely cute at that time.

Of course, Naminé noticed it too, but was basically speechless, and just managed to mutter some meaningless words that didn't make any sense, from any perspective. "Hee, you're hitting on her?" Sora's childhood friend showed up behind him. "K-kairi! Don't say stuff like that!" he defended himself as he recovered from being startled by Kairi. "So you are?" Kairi sung in a teasing voice, lowered her head and observed Sora's every reaction, while a playful smirk was dancing in the corner of her lips. If Sora was cute just a few seconds ago, Kairi got the amount of cuteness multiplied with a few hundreds easily. Sora had to turn around to prevent the girls to see his face, that was blushing more than you could ever imagine.

Naminé was astonished by this scene, and was holding her hand on her nose, just in case it would start bleeding. 'This... This! My new One True Pairing!' she sighed as her heart beat in a very quick pace, and she hadn't felt this excited ever since she finished watching Prince of Tennis. She couldn't help but to take her sketch book out and started drawing the scene that she had just seen. She was very certain she could hit her personal record on the amount of faves once she colored it and posted it up on deviantART. Kairi was chuckling with bubbly excitement too, but she shoved it quickly off and spoke again.

"Come on, Sora, you don't have to be that shy about it", Kairi sighed, even though she was completely clueless about the reason why Sora had turned around in the first place. 'Such an airhead', both Sora and Namine though at the same time, giving Kairi their pitying look. Sora turned around again, so that he could see both Naminé's and Kairi's faces.

"No, but really, I feel as though... I've met her", he explained and pointed at Naminé. "W-wait... we've met?" Naminé tilted her head a little bit so that her right ear was facing the childhood friend -duo, and and had a curious and suspicious look on her face. Then, she looked up to the roof and placed her thumb on her bottom lip, and changed back to tilting her head. "I really can't recall anything like that... Sorry", she smiled and apologized.

"What? Really? But... I have evidence!"

"Evidence?" the girls said in unison, and then Kairi's eyes widened. "Wait, Sora, did you take a picture of her-"

"I didn't!" Sora replied, making a flustered face once again. Then, once he took a breath, he continued. "You drew me a few pictures... They're probably somewhere in my casual clothes' pocket or something..."

"Ah, I see", Naminé replied. "I draw pretty much though, so I'm not sure whether I can remember unless I actually see the drawings..."

"Well, we'll all go to Kairi's today, so I'll just pass by my house and get them", he beamed.

"Wait, Sora, I didn't agree to that!" Kairi shouted and puffed her cheeks. Sora noticed he was sailing on pretty dangerous waters, so he used the old trick to distract her and Naminé and sailed away. It was their break anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: More Unexpected Discoveries**

After school, Sora had invited Roxas as well, even though the girls weren't present, and he was pretty sure Kairi would release her rage on him once she would get to know. Roxas agreed to meet at Kairi's house in thirty minutes once he had went home to change. "We had physical education on our last lesson", he explained.

Once Kairi and Sora, along with Naminé, met up with Riku, he wanted to tag along, so once they were done with all the awkward introductions that were forgotten in the morning, they all headed to Kairi's house.

"Eh? But, aren't you going out with Xion today?" Sora asked. "Nah, it's not like we hang out every day anyway", Riku replied, although he didn't seem very happy about her girlfriend being unable to meet. "I mean, we do have our own lives as well", he continued.

"I haven't been to your house in such a long time, either, so I definitely want to come along!" the silvery-haired senior mentioned, and Kairi tried to act surprised, even though she had just twitched at his best friend's words. "Y-yeah, that's true", she said, but what she really thought was:'I didn't want you or Sora to find out about my collection.'

Naminé sensed the tension that was building around Kairi, and she attempted to release it. "Hey, what's your room like, Kairi?" Naminé said and tried to keep a care-free tone to it, but once that sentence reached Kairi's ears, Naminé could see the tension grow even more. She was wondering whether to speak up some more or fall silent, but her thoughts were interrupted by Sora, who first placed his hand on Naminé's shoulder, and then held his finger on his lips with his other hand, gesturing her to keep quiet.

Kairi was already moving her feet and hands at the same time as she walked, which looked extremely stiff, when Sora laughed and placed his hand on Kairi's head, and gave her a light pat. It was strange how Riku couldn't notice Kairi's tension and stiffness at all. But then again, he was a step ahead of the rest of them, which was basically Sora's and Kairi's story of their life. The one who walked first, always, was Riku. "Relax, Kai, you have that same look when you played Ariel in our school festival back in elementary school", he chuckled and smiled at Kairi. Strange enough, this was more than enough to make Kairi really relaxed, and she felt like she had just come out from a massage.

'So he still has that calming effect, huh...'

"Kairi, you played Ariel? You know, from that Little Mermaid?" Naminé asked and glanced at Kairi with this really enthusiastic look on her face. "Well, yeah, it kind of makes sense, appearance-wise, since I have this... wait, what would you call this hair color? I mean... Isn't it a mixture of brown and red? Ugh, it's so hard to tell, it's completely different when I'm inside or out in the sun..." Kairi was starting to struggle with her words, that were leading her to the door of eternal thoughts. She had no idea about colors, other than the basic names, such as blue and green and so on. But Kairi gave up after thinking about it for a few seconds, closed the door of eternal thoughts, and continued with her story. "Oh, but I'm really bad at acting, so-"

"Auburn."  
The auburnette's eyes widened. "A-auburn?" she asked with an uncertain voice. Sora was already pretty uninterested in the topic, so he ran further ahead and tried to keep up with Riku, as they chatted about their favorite cafés in the area.

Whistle. "Woa~h, that's amazing! It's like, having both A and B in the same word", Kairi cheered as she punched the air and jumped around. "That's really something cool to know, really~... Oh, that's right, you draw! You knew because of that, right?" Kairi pointed out.

Twitch. "U-uh, well, something like that... yeah..." Naminé mumbled, but didn't seem to be sure about her words. "Well, I do see that word on the side of my colored pencils quite often, I guess", was her second attempt, and that was already more convincing.

"I knew it!" Kairi yelled, she was full of excitement at the moment. "Naminé, drawing sounds like so much fun..."

"That's because it is."

When Kairi glanced to her right, she found the most radiant and the warmest smile on the girl's face. Her eyes that were smiling along, were sparkling. And Kairi found all this the closest to magic she could ever get. She wanted to reach out to it, and when she finally could, she wanted to put all that magic into a gorgeous glass box and cherish it.

"Hey, hey, Nami, teach me, teach me, teach me how to draw!" Kairi pleaded, and as if repeating the morning's events in a reversed way, Kairi grabbed Naminé's hands and held them in a very tight grip, having no intention of letting go. Naminé could tell Kairi was serious, but she highly questioned her own abilities. Kairi hadn't even once seen her draw. The only reason Kairi knew about her hobby of drawing was because she had told her, and not just her, but the whole class about the fact that she loved drawing. 'But, just loving it isn't enough! There's no way I'm capable of teaching someone about these kinds of things...' She tried to avoid Kairi's gaze that came with those pleading eyes, that were shining at least as much as Naminé's eyes just a while ago. Naminé was afraid. She was certain that she couldn't teach anyone. She was uncertain if she was really that good, if she really was that special. The only matter of fact she knew was that she could easily get an A from Arts every year, just by being herself, just by breathing.

After thinking a while, Naminé knew another matter of a fact. She knew, that she wanted to pass the magic to other people, not just keep it all to herself. She knew, that she would regret it if she wouldn't teach her soul mate the things that she always wanted to share with a friend. And so, exhale, inhale, exhale, and she agreed.

"Fine fine, I'll do it, I'll do it."

Those were the words that were now melting Kairi out of happiness and joy. She had trouble preventing herself from crying, but she was struggling in there. "I love you, Naminé~!"

Of course, those words, instead, made Sora turn around 180 degrees with the speed of lightning, and pouted because of it. He was unable to say what he thought:'That's unfair! Me too, me too!' Riku was merely laughing silently at the scene, wishing he could have recorded it.

And thus, with this kind of atmosphere – happy and excited, that is – everyone reached Kairi's house in a few minutes. Roxas was already waiting in front of the yellow house, that contained two floors and a big backyard that hadn't been put into good use, despite being so huge. The front of the house was basically just a way to the mailbox and to the gate. But putting the fact aside that the space was small, there was still a few pots with some strawberry-ish plants. Even though they were surprisingly close to strawberries, they were Paopu-fruits. The berries would grow out when it was next spring, being the strange fruit that they were. The whole Destiny Island weren't known for anything else than the Paopu-fruit. But then again, the population was quite low, and people didn't visit only for the fruit, but also for the beaches. One could look for eternity to find more glorious white beaches that could compare with the ones in Destiny Island's.

Kairi's jaw dropped.  
Kairi was blushing.  
And startled.

"R-r-r-r-roxas?"

* * *

"Sorry about earlier", Roxas apologized humbly.

Naminé and Kairi were sitting on the comfortable couch in the living room, while Roxas had occupied the armchair. Naminé was watching the television, but was somewhat disappointed about the fact that there weren't any animes rolling. It was an obvious fact for Kairi, but Naminé had never had a television in their home. So she was quietly watching some Friends – even though she had no idea what was going on, and she couldn't recognize the people at all – while hiding her dissatisfaction. Riku and Sora were in the kitchen, cooking some spaghetti for everyone. Riku was, in fact, a fine cook. He had been practicing cooking ever since he was in kindergarten with his aunt he lived with, so that he could have food, no matter where he went. Sora wasn't that special at it, though. Sure, he could make some sandwiches like every other teenager, but when the duo were making the spaghetti, he didn't really do anything else than listen to Riku's instructions and follow them.

Kairi waved her hand, as if she were shoving some matter of facts aside. "It's completely fine. Moreover, it was _Sora's_fault for not telling me." She was more like shouting the Sora-part, and said it in the kitchen's direction, so that the boy in question would be sure to hear it. "Hey, I apologized for it already earlier!" he protested with his pouty-face. Roxas was merely laughing at Kairi's and Sora's small fight, and felt delighted to have these people as his friends. There was just one person he was concerned about.

"Hey, Kairi?" he asked, facing Kairi, but looking at the certain girl sitting next to Kairi.

"Hu~h? What did you say? Get back here, you lazy bum!" Kairi shouted, but not at Roxas. "I bet you're not even helping Riku in the kitchen at all!" The fight between the childhood friends -duo had gone a little further – which was slightly expected, after Sora calling her antisocial – but it didn't seem like they should be given the red card yet, and Riku was the one judging as a referee, so it was most probably fine for a while. The duo knew Riku would be the one grabbing Sora's collar, leading him back to the kitchen.

'… I guess I have no other choice...' the blond boy thought, as he noticed that the wild Kairi had escaped. He took a deep breath and faced the direction Naminé was in. Naminé's eyes were still glued to the screen, and she hadn't noticed the quarrel between Sora and Kairi at all. She was practically enchanted by the TV show. "Erm, y-you..." Roxas started, with an effort that pretty much fell in vain, due to his stuttering.

But in that instant, he managed to capture Naminé's attention. In Roxas' eyes, things happened in slow motion. That petite head, that turned forty-five degrees revealed Naminé's face to Roxas completely. This was the first time Roxas had actually seen Naminé's face properly, and even though it couldn't be considered love at first sight, Roxas felt as if they were both magnets, being pulled towards each other. His jaw nearly dropped, and his eyes widened at the sight of Naminé. He had noticed that Naminé had quite a fragile body, but her simplistic clothes and her beautiful, perfect face fit it. The blond teenager noted that Naminé resembled someone.

"W-what... I-is there something on my face?" Naminé asked, and with a troubled face, rubbed her cheek gently.

"Ah, no, no, not at all! I was just wondering..."

"Yes?"

"... Well, this is sorta rude..."

"I probably won't mind, so go ahead."

After a few attempts and stuttering, he finally spat it out. "Who are you?"

* * *

'Ah, there's no more ketchup', Riku noticed as he searched through all the cabinets. "Oy, Kairi, are you out of ketchup?" he asked while poking his nose around the living room, where Roxas and Naminé were, both staring at each other – from a distance though. "Wait, where's Kairi?" he asked as he finally could say anything. 'Are those two dating?'

"She and Sora kinda ran around the house. I've never been here before though, so I have no idea where she could be", Roxas explained. "Well, if anything, did they go up?"

"I believe so..." This time Naminé was the one to answer, and Roxas let out a chuckle. "Uh, this is really awkward to be a guest without the host present", he said, and the other two agreed. After a small chit-chat, Riku assumed Kairi would be in her room, and took the steps. He remembered how he used to come by all the time, with Sora, and the three of them would beg all day for some ice cream. And when they finally got some, they'd be happily skipping towards the stairs. Those worn-out wooden steps that felt nice against the fingers. The trio used to sit down on the stairs; Sora and Riku next to each other on the third and Kairi one step ahead on the fourth. Even though their butts would get numb after sitting there for a long time, they'd never have an awkward silence of any sort. The reason they'd sit on the steps for a long time was back when they were really into games. They all used to have the Gameboy-device and played everything they could with them.

After thinking about the old good days, Riku snapped out of the memories and took another step towards the second floor. The second floor was actually quite nice. Right after the stairs was a balcony -sort of thing, where you could have a nice view of the living room, in other words, Roxas and Naminé. There was a couch near the wall, and beside the couch was a door that lead to the toilet. Riku didn't stop at the toilet's door though. He continued walking forward the "balcony" until to his right was a door that was decorated with cute notes. Some of these notes were more like cards that were used in games like poker, that contained some life-teaching poems, that the life teacher Luxord sometimes gave. Then again, some of the notes were filled with text such as "Remember to this and that". And finally, there were photos. Just after receiving a nostalgic feeling of the stairs, Riku experienced again, after seeing the photos of when they were little. On one, they had built the most amazing, huge castle out of sand at the beach. On another one, they were celebrating Kairi's birthday and their cute little jaws were all over the floor as they stared at the cake that seemed like it could be a wedding cake, size-wise. There were some recent pictures too, but they didn't have as much Riku and Sora, they consisted more of Kairi's other girlfriends.

This time, Riku had to put an effort in getting back to Earth – which usually wasn't a problem to him at all. And again, with some effort, he pushed the handle down and opened the door.

… And he got shocked.

For a while, Riku just stood there, unable to believe his eyes. This had happened to him before. There was a time when he got one really bad grade on a test. At that moment, he couldn't believe his eyes. A couple years ago, he and Sora entered a lottery, and Sora was the one who won, and he got handed the prize. At that moment, he couldn't believe his eyes. But this.

This was nothing compared to that.

His best friend was an otaku.

Once he finally started understanding that this was reality, he started examining the room properly. The walls, that once used to be mint-colored were now filled with posters, both big and small, of anime characters. And by filled, it was really filled. There was no sign of the refreshing mint anymore. The cupboard that used to be for prizes she, Riku and Sora had won together – guess who suggested all these competitions – were now filled with figures. And a bookshelf, that didn't used to be there was now beside the cupboard and it, too, was filled with anything related to manga and anime. Beside Kairi's computer was a pile of disks, and when Riku walked towards them, he noticed that all of them were some otome-games.

Truly, Riku couldn't believe his eyes.

Riku was still frozen up at Kairi's room, when Sora decided to run into Kairi's room, searching for a place to hide from Kairi's rage. Of course, Kairi saw clearly where Sora was heading, and followed him. She ran in with all her might, just to bump on Sora, and find out that her normal, regular days had turned into a nightmare. The last person she wanted to leak her secret out to, was one of the first people who ever found out. The feeling was slightly similar as if you were a teenaged boy and your parent found out your secret magazines.

"R-riku..." Kairi said, once she realized the situation. Sora had no idea how to react. He knew that Kairi's secret seemed important to her. But on the other hand, he hadn't liked the fact that he couldn't tell about it to anyone. Especially Riku, and Sora just wanted to get away.

In a blink of eye, Riku dashed out of the room, and basically jumped straight from the second floor to the first, and ran out. Kairi felt helpless, as she glanced at the front door Riku had just used. And before she knew, her feet had given in and her face was emotionless. When Sora bent to take a look at her, planning to comfort her, he saw that Kairi's usual glints in her eyes had disappeared. It was honestly a fearful moment, and he didn't know what to do. Should he comfort her? He didn't find the right words. Tell her to stand up, look forward, and face tomorrow? She seemed so depressed, Sora was afraid of hurting her. Should he call for Naminé and Roxas to come? He had no idea whether Kairi wanted to be alone or surrounded by pity.

So basically, Sora was just standing there. He, along with Kairi, felt helpless. Was helpless. The two of them kept standing – Sora – and sitting – Kairi – on their spots, when suddenly Roxas came up.

"Hey, why did Riku leave? And Sora, go mix that sauce or else it'll cause a fire or something!" he complained, completely aware of the situation, but ignoring it. He was the smartest one, after all, and he knew what he had to do. "Oh, right, just a minute", Sora replied, waking up, and finally moving. As expected of our smart little Roxas, he got Sora's butt finally moving. 'Next one up is Kairi...' he thought and raised those imaginary-glasses as a fun effect.  
Suddenly, Roxas entered the room and walked straight up to the bookshelf. "Whoa, Kairi, you have a huge amount of manga!" he said, half actually impressed, half just trying to cheer Kairi up. Once noticing that Kairi didn't react at all, he picked the first volume of that magical girl -manga he discovered a long time ago, and walked back to Kairi, who was still sitting near the door as if she were in a trance.

"May I borrow this one?"

Kairi's eyes were clearly following, but her eyes, along with her mind, seemed to be completely blank. "Any way is fine", she said almost mechanically, with no emotion in her voice, either. Roxas sighed. His plan obviously hadn't worked, but his plans were usually flawless, so there should've been just a little tweak to make it work.

After thinking a while, Roxas had thought of something. Maybe his actions were pretty much perfect, but the person doing them was wrong.  
"Naminé!" he yelled. "Oh, and Kairi, I'm borrowing this", he added after wards, just to make sure Kairi wouldn't blame him later for snatching her property.

Soon a blonde girl had come upstairs. She was quite concerned about Kairi's condition, but since they had just met, and she didn't know her that well, she had other priorities. Such as admiring Kairi's amazing collection. When she arrived, she felt like she had just died and been sent straight to heaven. But of course, someone was there, snapping her out of her dream. Roxas walked up to her and whispered softly some instructions into her ear. Naminé was pretty confused about the plan, but decided to play along – because she was smart enough to know that Roxas was smart. And so, Naminé unconsciously used the same pattern as Roxas had just a few minutes ago. In fact, she had completely forgotten what Roxas had said, once she took another glance at the piece of heaven she was in. And while using the same pattern, the only exception was, that Naminé couldn't have cared less for Kairi's mood, since she was so much more interested in Kairi's manga and all her games. She knew she could never afford them, so she thought "Now or never" – not never, though, she could probably come over whenever she wanted to, if she just asked nicely. So she was far more enthusiastic than Roxas was. She was jumping around in the room, laughing and being over-joyed like an idiot. Roxas had already given up fighting against his urge to laugh, and once again, was rolling on the floor and laughing at Naminé's behavior. Not much time after Roxas had given in, Kairi started to regain the glints in her eyes and started chuckling quietly, but loud enough for Roxas to notice.

When Naminé had adored everything enough, she finally realized that she hadn't actually followed the plan, and flailed her arms around, while apologizing to Roxas – who, obviously was both amused and satisfied with what Naminé had unconsciously done.

During the time when Riku had been searching for Kairi because of the ketchup, Naminé had found out various things she just hadn't said out loud. For instance, Roxas was the boy, who had this Internet blog Naminé often visited – every time she could use the library's computers. He was the boy who Naminé liked, her number one boy. But when exchanging information about themselves, Naminé had left out some. She didn't say she knew already who Roxas was, even though she knew almost everything about Roxas' daily life, thanks to the blog. For Roxas, Naminé was just a pretty classmate he had just met. And for Naminé, knowing about the blog was enough to know which topics to bring up and which subjects to drop. For once, out of luck though, our smart little blond boy had been beaten in smartness.

"It's fine, really. You did an amazing job", Roxas winked and patted Naminé a few times. Because of this, Naminé was blushing all over the place, and walked over to Kairi unnaturally quick and started talking about how amazing her room was and asking if she could stay over the night.

And did you think that this would be overlooked by Roxas? Of course not. 'Hee... now isn't this interesting', he thought, but happily jumped downstairs to help Sora prepare everything. The dinner would be delicious.

* * *

Four teens sitting around a table. Everyone already had the food on their plates, and were enjoying it. But because they were all busy, eating, they couldn't find time to converse. And this all equaled to silence. Even though the silence wasn't awkward, anyone would've traded silence with some happy chatter. Sora decided to do something about it, and started talking about the first thing that popped into his head.

"So, Naminé, tell us about yourself", he said, but wanted to face palm at himself right after it. 'This isn't supposed to be some kind of interview!'  
Naminé knew she could trust the three people in front of her, but she was still uncertain. She wondered whether they would seriously be interested if she told, or if they'd just pretend to be, and try to be polite. Her doubts were soon gone with what Roxas said.

"Yeah, I want to know more about you!"

"Uhm... okay then... _But_!" Naminé said, raising her finger.

"No butts in the dining table!" Sora replied playfully, but got soon smacked lightly by Kairi. "Don't mind this baka, just go ahead", she told her encouragingly and closed Sora into a playful choking-pose, which looked like an endearing hug into Roxas' and Naminé's eyes, and everyone except Kairi were soon blushing more or less, although Kairi didn't notice anything.

"O-oh kay, well, I was kinda saying... that I might be sort of boring, so please don't mind me", our blonde missy continued as she exchanged glances with everyone as she spoke.

"So, uh... I used to live in Castle Oblivion..."

"Woah! Doesn't that mean you're rich?" Again, this comment was made by Sora.

"Erm... Actually, it's the place where people with no money live in... My family's actually really, really, poor. We were lucky we got to move in here, since they pay really bad in Castle Oblivion."

She continued telling the story of her life. Due to her poor childhood, she didn't often get many toys, but she could always get a few more pencils and a sketchbook, since they were easy to afford. And so, she ended up doodling and sketching really naturally. The only place where she could be connected to the other worlds was Internet, in the library, so she grew attached to the library as well, even though she disliked reading heavy books.

With Internet, she joined the common sites, such as Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr. She also had a few accounts on art sites, for example, deviantART. She could play many games online, which were almost as amazing as the ones richer people bought from the stores. She could have fun reading posts about people's everyday life. She could communicate as a person she was not, but that didn't mean she lied. It was simply an opportunity she didn't take.  
For Naminé's surprise, everyone were actually interested in her. She thought she would've been boring, but apparently, the others didn't think so. They all listened like good kids, commenting and pointing out fun things every once in a while.

"But wait, Naminé, don't you still recognize me?" was the question Sora suddenly asked. "Oh, wait, I have the evidence with me, this time."  
"Ooh, that sounds exciting, it's like a mystery and detective -story or something like that~", Roxas cheered, as he and Kairi observed Sora's movements, along with Naminé.

Everyone had already eaten, and they had moved their plates near the dish machine, but they were still chatting around the table. And so, Sora placed all the drawings on the center of the table.

"Here, see~!"

And for Naminé's surprise, Sora hadn't been wrong. He was exactly right. Naminé felt all her memories flood to the surface, and she saw clear pictures of that day in her head.

"Right! I was cheering you up when you were-"

"Aaaihsdfm, let's leave that topic under the surface!" Sora shouted out loud and flailed his arms so that all the attention would move from Naminé to him. "Nice save", Roxas mouthed to him and winked, and this made Sora get irritated, but he decided to drop it. He didn't want any unneeded attention back to the topic after all.

"But yeah, now I've shown you the evidence, so there's no way you could say we haven't met anymore."

Kairi picked the pictures and her eyes were shining as she observed the art. "Wait, why does this one say that tears are somewhat healthy? … tears?"

And again, Sora got all flustered, and tried his best to switch the subject. The thing he wanted the least was having Kairi discover that he had been crying because of her, and he thought that the air would grow awkward or something similar. But after succeeding once, the effectiveness of the flailing arms had faded away, and Kairi had successfully hopped into the carriage.

"Sora... don't tell me, you were crying... because of me?"

Along with those words, Roxas frowned and mentally banged his head against the table. 'Now you've done it, Kairi...' Naminé, instead, was quite pleased with the plot twist. She thought that this was the perfect opportunity for them to solve things out, so she asked if she could go get some tea. "Oh, and Roxas, come with me, I don't know how to boil the water." Roxas merely rolled his eyes at Naminé's weak acting, but Sora and Kairi didn't seem to notice anything.

Once the blondies left, Sora knew he had been right. The air had grown awkward in no time, and his fingers were looking a way to his teacup that had been empty for quite a long time now. "Look, Kairi, I don't want to lie to you, so I'm going to say this", he said and took a breath before continuing. "Yes, I did cry. And yes, I did cry because of you." He had kept his eyes stuck on his teacup, but was eager to see Kairi's expression, so he raised his head to make an eye contact with the girl who was sitting on the other side of the table. That certain girl's eyes were forging that same sentence they did that time when she ran away. Her eyes were saying "I'm sorry."

This, Sora couldn't bear, and he stood up and started walking towards the front door. "Roxas, Naminé, I'm leaving now. Bye, Kairi."

Roxas and Naminé, who had been spying on their friends, with the support of the boiling water, were shocked by the result. Their thoughts kept repeating the same. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!" and "Oh my goodness, what a failure."

Once they had returned to the table with full cups, they desperately tried to distract Kairi's thoughts to something more cheerful, tried to take her guilty expression away from her. They consulted her, but nothing came out of it, except that they got the hang of the situation and the full story of what had happened in the past.

"Well, Kairi, I don't really know what to say to that, but..." Naminé started. "But make up with Sora quickly."

"Yeah, the more you wait the harder it will be to apologize!" Roxas supported her, but both Naminé and him knew that this was going to be quite difficult. Or rather than knowing it, they thought it would be.

But in her mind, Kairi had already made the decision that was right.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Best... Friends?**

Roxas was starting to get quite sick of Sora's and Kairi's behavior, even though he wouldn't had admitted it if someone were to ask him. He didn't want to jump into the fight between the childhood friends, since he had studied a few facts from a few dictionaries. One being, that childhood friends share a special bond. And of course our little Roxas wouldn't have known that, since, after all, he hadn't ever had any friends before. As much as he wouldn't had wanted to accept it, the three unique people around him were his first friends ever.

And now, you may think "How's that possible?" Sure, Roxas' behavior seemed to fit an experienced matchmaker, who noticed every single hint and had learned to pick them up. However, this was not the case with Roxas. Just like Naminé, he had always been stuck to the Internet. But then again, unlike Naminé, Roxas was shy. Even though Naminé could get nervous, she was sort of mature and was able to face her weaknesses head on. Her drawing hobby would help her as well. Wherever she went, as long as she was doodling something, she would attract people around her, and they would soon grow curious about her drawings and be drawn near her.

On the other hand, Roxas didn't have anything he could start doing naturally in a meeting or a crowd. He had been living in Destiny Island since he was ten, yet no one from school was interested in him. At that point, he had still braces and wore glasses because he had a bad eyesight. And of course something like this would affect his ability to get any friends. What made the situation worse was, that Roxas was unable to talk to anyone. Every time someone luckily came to him – mostly not with friendship-ish things in mind, more like school-related things – he froze, and just stared at the other party.

After experiencing the same kind of treatment for the first twelve years of his life, he made a decision to change. He started studying humans and their reactions, via dramas. But no, he didn't only watch some random dramas, he also went to the Internet. I know you know the amount of online chats there are. He joined several ones as anonymous, and quickly learned a lot of useful things. Going through Tumblr and Twitter, sometimes Facebook, too, he learned how he should treat people.

And then, slowly, he started drawing more attention to himself. When someone was carrying a lot of books that seemed heavy, he would come to help. When it was someone's birthday, he would congratulate the person with a card he wrote himself. Soon, everyone had acknowledged him. Soon, according to all people he came across with, he was a wonderful person. But if he wouldn't have decided to change, he wouldn't ever be on that point. If he wouldn't have been determined enough, he could have still possibly be that shy boy who always spent his eating his lunch alone in a dark corner. If he hadn't put effort in what he was doing, he wouldn't had been who he was right now. He wouldn't had been Roxas.

But, even though Roxas was and was going to be thankful for Sora and Kairi for being his first actual friends, he was seriously starting to get annoyed with them. It was Saturday, and Roxas had already made plans with the two. The three of them, Sora, Kairi and him had decided to take a stroll around the forest that was nearby, but all they did was walking around in silence. Roxas was really upset that Riku hadn't come with them for some reason. Riku would've surely done something to the silence that was surrounding the three teens. Roxas was walking in the middle, Kairi was walking next to him on the right, and Sora on the opposite side. However, Sora refused talking to Kairi, due to his pride that had been hurt, and Kairi was really gloomy. Roxas found this unbelievable.

The walk continued with the same kind of atmosphere pretty much for the whole walk. But the only blond couldn't bear until the end of the walk, so as much as he tried to resist and fight against his urge, he couldn't. And so, Roxas snapped.

His snapping wasn't that serious though. It was, after all, Roxas we were talking about here. He merely gave the childhood friends a good lecture and told them to make up soon. He yelled at Sora for being hurt over such a little thing as his weak moment getting found out, and he shouted at Kairi for feeling guilty over something that happened in the past.

"Roxas..." Sora said, surprised that Roxas actually got angry at him and Kairi. "I kinda wouldn't want to say this, but you can't feel guilty unless it's about the past..."

The blond turned his head to Sora, and his expression was puzzled. "W-wait, you can't?" he asked in confusion. "But wait, now that I think about it, you really can't feel guilty about something that's happening or is about to happen..." And soon Roxa's mind had been lead to the door of eternal thoughts, and his eyebrows were expressing the word "highly confused".

"Ha ha, that's right, I agree with Sora!" Kairi laughed out loud, and caught Sora and Roxas off guard, since they were only looking at each other, completely forgetting Kairi's presence. They both turned at Kairi, who was still giggling. Roxas smirked at Sora, who was still startled and whispered into his ear. "Make up with her already."

Sora gulped. He surely had missed that laughter, even if it had been just one day. Their whole walk had felt so empty without hearing Kairi's random comments and her giggling every once in a while. Our hero closed his eyes and took a breath while he was at it. Now, he was determined. He would definitely apologize his behavior, even though it would just hurt his pride more than it had already had. In fact, he actually refused to think about his pride at all. He just dived. When one's about to dive, he doesn't think about it, he just does.

So, with these determined thoughts, Sora waited until there would be a quiet moment between the three. Meaning, he was waiting for Kairi to get silent, since Roxas got the message ages ago. And once Kairi had started to calm down, Sora turned to her.

"K-kairi... Look, I'm sorry for being such a stupid person I am..." he said, even though he wasn't looking at her with his his eyes, and just stared at their toes.

"Geez, I made myself look so pathetic, but I didn't want you to think that I was", he continued, still not raising his head. "If it weren't for Roxas, I would've told you something, but he's here, so I guess I can't..."

"Hey! How's it my fault?"

With these lines, the atmosphere had softened quite a bit, and smiles had returned to everyone's faces. Sora finally raised his head, just to see Kairi's eyes flooded with tears. "H-hey, hey, wh-what's wrong?" he asked, being slightly concerned and worried, whether he made Kairi cry – again.

"N-no... I'm just... It's just..." the girl with the teary eyes asked. A tear escaped the cage, and if the door's open, why won't the others escape as well? A thin stream was flowing out, but Kairi didn't let out a noise, and Sora assumed that Kairi's voice would break if she talked.

But for his and Roxas' surprise, she did talk. She closed the cage properly, and wiped the tray. "Sora, let me be your personal maid, from now on."

Just like Riku yesterday, the younger boys couldn't believe, not what they saw, but what they had heard.

"M-m-m-maid?" Surprisingly, this was thought was voiced by Roxas, who was blushing all the way to his ears, and his face was so red it could have been a basket of strawberries. Sora was blushing as well, but he was genuinely speechless. Kairi, instead, didn't even blink, but she was starting to get feel suspicion growing inside her after seeing her friends' reactions.

She started poking her fingers nervously. "Is it weird? I mean, I caused Sora so much trouble, and I thought-" "Kairi, I'm sure it'll look great on you!" Roxas cheered, as he placed his hand on Kairi's shoulder, and raised his thumb at her with his other hand.

"Huh? Look great one me? What are you talking about?"

"Sora, Sora, let's head home now, I want to see her in that outfit already", Roxas continued, ignoring Kairi's questions quite rudely, especially since he was the ever-so-polite Roxas. But maybe he just plain wasn't being Roxas, who knows.

Unexpectedly, Sora wasn't opposing Roxas' plan, and the two of them were pulling Kairi's wrists to the direction where Sora's house was. Kairi was, from most parts, lost, but she definitely wanted to make up with Sora. She wanted to make everything up for Sora. She had disappointed him so many times, she couldn't bear it. So she thought, being a servant would be a good start. And so, Kairi decided to Sora do whatever he wanted. Until she actually realized what this was all about.

* * *

Kairi was standing in front of the bathroom's mirror. She was wearing something she thought she'd never get a chance to. Or rather, she wasn't interested in costumes like this. The costume she was wearing was quite obviously a maid-uniform. The hem of the dress reached about half of her thigh, which was barely her comfort-zone anymore. She was wearing white stockings and some simple shoes people wear indoors. However, the shoes managed to match with the dress somehow. The dress itself was a tone lighter than peach-pink, and it seemed to suit her perfectly, as it complimented her skin. The short puffed sleeves added a nice, girly touch, and the cream-colored apron was quite tightly wrapped around her waist with an averagely big ribbon behind her back, and while being relatively tight, it didn't look like it had been out of the place. There were white frills every once in a while, for example, on the hem of the skirt-part, and the apron. There were also some framing the neck-area, and some were there for decorating the sleeves.

The embarrassed Kairi was wondering what had she done to deserve this. Sure, she had dreamed about cosplaying for ages, but this was certainly not what she had had in mind. What she had had on her mind was something like Megurine Luka, the Vocaloid, since she adored the design. Then again, she adored all the Vocaloids, but she couldn't help but have Luka as her favorite.

Her hair was tied up on a single ponytail on the left side of her head, and for some reason, the boys had even given her a hair accessory that matched the outfit. She was really embarrassed about the attire, but she had already set her mind to do whatever would make Sora happy, after all the times that she had got him depressed.

So, after making the boys wait for painful fifteen minutes, Kairi the maid stepped out of the bathroom. As expected, both of the boys dropped their jaws as they were glancing at her from head to the toes, back up, back down, back up, back down. Their eyes were going up and down like an elevator, and Kairi couldn't help the uneasy feeling she had, as she tried hard to not meet their eyes.

"Uhm... have you had enough of the staring?" Kairi asked as she flinched.

Hearing her question, Sora and Roxas snapped out of their own world and returned to the one where Kairi was and had been for a while.

"It looks really good on you!"

"It suits you!"

"It looks as if it were made for you!"

"Yeah, yeah! And those accessories match as well!"

"You've outdone yourself this time, Roxas!"

"No, no, no, it's kind of thanks to you!"

"What are you talking about, you picked these, so it's thanks to you!"

Our poor maid was starting to slip out of the carriage, and looked at the duo before her eyes with a puzzled look, wondering what were they talking about. "Well, thanks for the compliments, but moreover..." she said and switched the direction where she was looking towards her uniform. "Where the Paopu did you guys get this?"

The boys' eyes were once again aimed at Kairi. "What is 'this'?" Sora asked dumbly once he finally could find the ability to speak. He was honestly still speechless of the sight of Kairi. Even though he wasn't really into the whole maid-uniform -thing, it looked so good on Kairi that it seemed edible – although he had no intention to actually eat it.

"_'This'_ as in the whole attire!" Kairi answered, raising her voice slightly. She was genuinely embarrassed and was blushing. And the part that made her annoyed was that she wouldn't quit blushing in a while.

Sora took another glance at the dress and felt the blood get into his head. "Well, I don't know, for some reason, Roxas had it..."

Roxas chuckled as if he was plotting something, but stopped it before Sora and Kairi started to think he was out of his mind. "Ahem, my brother works as a model", he said after clearing his throat. Despite the explanation, Sora and Kairi were still curious.

"Your _brother_ wore this?" Kairi asked and there was the word 'worry' written on her forehead.

Roxas raised his finger and waved it in front of Kairi's eyes. "Tch, tch, tch, are you saying my brother couldn't look good wearing girls' clothing?"

Now Sora was starting to get worried as well, but his worry was more aimed at Roxas' brother. "S-so, it's like YOHIO... right?"

Instead of answering, Roxas pulled out his cellphone and took a picture of Sora. After him, he moved his phone and snapped a picture of Kairi as well. Then, dead-seriously put his phone back into his pocket and. Started laughing.

"You... you guys... he he- you should have seen your faces!" he was able to say in between his laughter.

Playful anger was growing inside of Sora's and Kairi's heads. They exchanged glances. "Kairi, get the rope and the bat!" "Got it!" And along those lines, it was Roxas' turn to have 'worry' plastered on his face.

"W-wait, you get it was a j-joke, don't you..." he said, but managed to make it sound like a whimper. Sora merely chuckled and casually cracked his knuckles. "Yes, and I hope you do realize this is a joke too, dear Roxas."

After playfully threatening Roxas enough as a revenge – which didn't seem so playful to Roxas – Kairi decided to start a serious conversation. They were sitting in the living room and watching some random TV-shows that came along, while eating some instant noodles Sora had prepared for them in a whim. Sora's parents had come home from work, but they seemed to be so tired they didn't have the energy to cook anything, so they went to sleep after having a cup of tea.

"Uhm... so, Sora, w-would you be willing to accept me as your personal maid?" she asked in a quiet voice, and kept her head low. Sora had a surprised look on his face.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... you were serious?"  
Kairi raised her head slightly and even attempted to make a small smile, which probably turned out to seem menacing, but she didn't think about it. Roxas laid back as he shot his comment in between.

"'Oy, 'oy, Sora, she doesn't look like she's joking."

"What? No way, no way... I mean, Kairi, seriously, we're friends!" Sora replied, now sounding extremely serious himself. "Best friends... right?"  
Kairi's head was lowered again. "Yeah... best friends", was her reply. "However, tell me... Tell me, what kind of a friend does nothing more than hurt you?" she continued, and tried to not make it a big deal. What was, in fact, exactly what she was doing, as her voice grew louder with each word she spoke.

Sora, instead, held his head proudly up. He convinced Kairi that she didn't really hurt him. Or he tried to, but he really couldn't on his first attempt. But when he added a few words that could make a difference, he succeeded. The few words being "At least you make me happy way more than sad."

A silence that made Roxas feel extremely awkward kept hanging in the air. Kairi hadn't given a reply, and had just been staring at the floor with her shoulders hanging low. Roxas had the urge to say something not-so-depressing, but he couldn't think of anything. All the words he thought of ended up seeming like a bad idea. After all, a serious conversation between best friends is a big deal, no matter how much we sugar-coat it. He let a sigh and started staring out of the window, trying to be both invisible and present. 'Is everything right here my fault now?' he wondered, and let out another sigh.

Sora himself felt his tense body get tenser every second. He couldn't handle silent situations that well, and wanted, just like Roxas, to say something that would lift the spirits. But unlike Roxas, Sora wasn't looking at the situation from a third-person's perspective. He was looking at it as a cause for it. And because he was the cause for it, he, aside from the other party, would be the only one to fix it. So, he attempted to.

"You know, Kairi, this is just stupid... do..."

And, the attempt, fortunately, succeeded.

Sora took a deep breath before continuing. "Do what you want..." he said and his usual grin was sent back to his face. "Or rather, bring me those cookies from the kitchen cabinet", he said and winked at Kairi playfully.

The aburnette's eyes lightened up and started sparkling. "This... this... c-can I really?" she asked, now a hint of enthusiasm lingering in her voice, instead of her somewhat loud voice raising by half a degree on every syllable. She didn't stay to wait for Sora's reply, and rushed into the kitchen, while humming and skipping happily. She really wanted to do something to make Sora happy. That was her decision. But don't you all agree, our little Kairi has no idea what makes Sora happy. Kairi poured almost the whole package on a red plate, that was Sora's favorite color, without a doubt, arranged the cookies to match Sora's taste – chocolate chips on the top, cream-filled on the bottom – and even took out a glass and filled it with milk. Despite being completely oblivious to the things that could possibly make Sora happy for the rest of his life, she did a really good job on what she was doing, as expected of her.

She returned to the living room with the plate and the glass, and managed not to drop anything even though she was still skipping and humming. She placed all the things on the table, before Sora, and when Sora met her eyes, he was honestly surprised. He didn't think Kairi would actually be happy with her decision. But, in front of him, his eyes were begging to differ with his thoughts. Kairi, her expression was over-joyed. Kairi gave in for her legs just a bit so that her face would be on the same length as Sora's. She was wearing a smile. And how could Sora not smile back? After all, smiles and laughter are contagious. And so, Sora smiled back, and patted Kairi. "There, there, good girl."

'W-w-w-wait, wait, w-was Sora's hand always this big and warm?' the red-head thought, but the train of her thoughts was cut by a 'snap'-sound.

"W-wah?" both Sora and Kairi reacted. They looked at the direction the sound came from, and they saw Roxas. The boy was sitting on the other side of the table, and was currently occupied by his phone. He was pushing the buttons with unimaginable speed and somehow seemed very excited about it.

* * *

In a place not far away, a blonde girl was lying on the hard wood-floor, leaning on her elbows and drawing with some crayons, until her phone rang. A text message, apparently. Once the blonde had returned from being startled, and done her best erasing that one line that she accidentally drew when she got caught off-guard, she reached to her simplistic bright red cellphone. She unlocked it, to be greeted by her phone's background, an auburn-colored girl in a white one-piece, holding her hand up with a peace-sign. For a split-second, she gritted her teeth at the background, but once she exhaled, she opened the message. She let the attachment to load, and was blown with a warm feeling.

"Look what greatness I just witnessed!" was the actual text message. On the other hand, the attachment was a picture with a brown-haired youngster and a red-head, the brunet holding his hand on the girl's head. There was blush on both of their faces, and the faces themselves looked really happy. 'Now, isn't that sweet? I hope you guys solve everything out soon', she though, after sending a smiley back as a reply, and locked her phone, which meant she would continue drawing. But the drawing came out better than she had imagined. Maybe because she had been smiling?

* * *

Author's Note:

Hewwoo, everyone~!  
Have you noticed how the amount of words has slowly increased in every chapter? xD Although on Ch. 8, the amount of words was my record about 5,2k, while this one being just 3,6k – excluding the author's note ^^; I procrastinated all the way through it, so I can't really be that proud of it... Then again, apparently procrastination is really useful in Arts! :D And I hope no one would say something like "Stories/fanfic/literature isn't art", because anything, that can make you feel something, anything, can be considered art! \(^0^)/ I was taught that by some random person, but I believe it, none the less x3

I've been looking for geewd fics for a while now, but I rarely find any that actually suit my tastes xD.. But I admit that I'm a bit picky and criticizing, so it might be my fault too :S

Well, anyways, I sincerely thank you for reading the story this far~ ! :D Not sure how many chapters I intend to write, but I've always dreamed of writing a story with no time limits or anything, so I'm quite sure I'll write at least 20 x3 Please look forward for it ;D


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: I'm changing the rating from K+ to T, just in case. Other than that, please enjoy the next chapter!

* * *

Chapter Ten: Tanjoubi Omedetou

Something was off. Something was definitely off. Sora was tailing the usual gang, Kairi, Roxas and Naminé, with his hands in his pockets of his jeans, his eyebrows pointing slightly upwards. The trio before him was too busy trying to open a canned coke without breaking anything, since the essential part of opening a canned soda was missing – the opener. And thus, no one noticed the Sora in distress. He was thinking about his friends' relationships quite intensely. The friends he was thinking about were somehow Riku and Kairi. Somehow.

In fact, the trio plus Sora were at Kairi's house, celebrating Kairi's birthday – and yes, Kairi had decided to invite Naminé as well. Sora had been there since the morning, helping Kairi and his father decorate and clean the house. Naminé and Roxas had come by the time that was announced in the digital invitation. What was out of ordinary in this special occasion was Riku not being present. As long as Sora could remember, Riku would've got to Kairi's house before him, making this the first time Sora got there first. Sora was starting to get worried. What if Riku had forgotten that today was Kairi's party? What if he had gotten into an accident? Knowing Riku, the first two options sounded quite impossible. Even though Riku couldn't memorize all other special occasions, such as Mothers' Day, Easter, or even New Year's Eve – which was later on reminded to him via fireworks – he would never forget Sora's or Kairi's birthdays, be it official or the party.

Suddenly, Sora's mind had come into a conclusion. 'Could it be... Could it possibly be... that Riku is avoiding... me?!' For a few minutes, this line was the only thing going through Sora's head, along with calculations and analyzes of the past days. He thought about it. Riku hadn't replied to any texts or calls he had sent to him ever since Friday. 'Is it because I kept Kairi's secret a secret from him?'

The trio had successfully opened the coke and they were celebrating the success by pouring the coke equally in four glasses. With satisfied expressions on their faces, they drank the small amount of liquid, but were quick to notice that one wasn't participating.

"Earth to Sora~", Kairi yelled and glomped Sora behind him. Sora still had a serious expression, but it was soon wiped away as he was caught off guard, and had to regain his balance in order to not fall along with the somewhat hyper Kairi. "I'm here, I'm here", he reassured with a hint of irritation in his voice. Roxas and Naminé were looking at the sweet moment and the lovely positions their OTP had. Kairi was now poking Sora's cheek, and Sora was puffing them. They both looked amused by this little fun, even though Sora's cheeks had a pink tint on them.

"Don't go spacing out, especially since today I'm the princess!" Kairi announced cheerfully, and had a victorious smile on her face. Sora grinned at her silly statements. Yes, today, he wouldn't have time to worry about Riku. If he wouldn't come today, he was sure to give him a punishment the next day after school. Today, he would celebrate Kairi's birthday.

"Weren't you going to be my personal maid?" Sora asked following with a few chuckles. Naminé turned to Roxas with a puzzled look, but was only returned with a "I'll tell you later" -look. Kairi answered with something along the lines "Today is an exception." Despite it all, Sora was happy. The two of them were now the same age.

And before anyone realized it, Sora lifted Kairi up, and was carrying her princess-style. Kairi's attempts to talk him to put her down weren't heard by the said boy, and when she finally gave up and their eyes met, Sora winked and said:"You're the princess today, right?" For a reason unknown to Kairi, she blushed at this, and turned her head at his chest in order to hide the blush from Roxas, Naminé and Sora himself.

"Do what you want", she mumbled against Sora's shirt, making the words difficult to hear, while taking in Sora's scent. Sora's heart skipped a beat every time he could feel Kairi's breath against him. 'Does this mean it's not over?' he thought, while the confused feelings were mixing inside of him. But instead of raging just because he was a little confused, he tried his best not to cause any unneeded scenes on his best friend's birthday.

The four of them kept partying. They ate lots of pizza, that Kairi's dad had ordered for them, and lots of cake Sora and Kairi had baked earlier. Sure, it had got burnt for some parts, the whipped cream and paopu-flavored jam was flooding all over the place, and the toppings weren't honestly arranged that beautifully, but it was the most delicious cake the four of them had ever had. It was probably because – as cliché as it sounds – it was made out of love. Roxas, Namine, Sora and Kairi played lots of games, everything from classic boardgames through video games to those childlike hide-and-seeks and tags. It was the time to open the presents, but Riku still hadn't come.

Sora was starting to get irritated at this. He took out his phone while everyone else were occupied by something else, and tried to contact the silver-haired boy who hadn't shown up. Sora let the phone try to contact him for fair twenty seconds, but as he came up to the conclusion Riku wouldn't answer, he hung up.

"Kai, Riku won't answer his phone", he said once he returned to the triangle, breaking it into a square. For a minute, Kairi looked serious and her expression was spacing out, as if she were thinking about something intensely.

"I see..." were the words she finally let out of her mouth. "I guess I'll try to call him", she continued, while taking out her own white touch-screen, that had been decorated by various pearls, stickers, what ever you could use for decoration, really.

"Oh and Roxas, Naminé, stop shaking those packages!"

"Yeah, that's what you say, but how can you possibly get this many gifts?" the blondes protested, gesturing towards the huge mountain of boxes. Sora let out a chuckle before answering to the puzzled duo.

"Her relatives send her tons. But despite that, his dad probably gave her seventy-five percent of these."

Roxas, who was holding a package that was the same size as he himself, almost dropped it, if it weren't for Naminé, who happened to be next to him, catching it for him. He muttered a quick thanks before turning at Sora and while turning imaginary tables all around.

After a while, everyone were staring at Kairi, who had closed her phone after the call. "Negative." Or the attempted call. "He won't answer", she told the rest of them, while dropping her shoulders in disappointment. "Now that I think about it, I did text him last night. And I don't recall him texting me back." Sora nodded as an agreement, while the blondies just looked at her with understanding expressions. Whether they really understood or not wasn't shown in their eyes.

The somewhat sad expression was wiped away in a second, and soon Kairi was smiling her usual smile again. "Oh well, whatever! He probably forgot or something, got caught in a Friends-marathon and ignored his cell phone's battery", she threw. Sora was about to mention that none of those were possible, considering the guy in question, but kept it to himself. He really didn't want to ruin the day. So, with a casual atmosphere, they proceeded to opening the gifts.

First was Roxas. He walked to Kairi, and handed her a slim piece of paper. A letter, to be exact. He faced her eyes while rubbing the back of his head and apologizing. "I didn't know what to get for you, so I just got you a card and put some money inside it. Buy whatever you want with it", he said, and sat down where he had been sitting. Kairi, however, looked somehow over-joyed and it was obvious how much she wanted to just jump and sing.

After Roxas was Naminé, who also walked to Kairi, but only slightly slower and shyer. She was flinching a little, biting her bottom lip and kept glancing somewhere else than at Kairi. Kairi noticed her uneasiness and told her that it's okay,and that she didn't have to be so nervous. Of course, Naminé heard the words, but wasn't able to relax at all. Every time she happened to look at the huge mountain, she felt like her own gift had no chance of being as good.

Other than Kairi, also Roxas noticed Naminé's nervousness. He grinned when a plan suddenly popped into his head. The blond stood up and walked behind Naminé. Naminé, who was too stiff to notice her surroundings, kept looking at Kairi, then back to the mountain of gifts, and then back to Kairi. She was quite close to not give her her present, but before she could back away, Roxas, who was right behind her, hugged, or rather glomped her playfully. "Wha-!" The blonde was quickly caught off guard and was fighting hard against the Physic's laws and maintaining her balance.

"W-w-what are you doing, Roxas?" she asked in a bit higher pitch than usual, caused probably by the shock she got.

"Nnn, Naminé, you look just like a cloud, with your fluffy hair and white clothes, I couldn't resist!" he explained, even though right after this, he whispered some silent words into Naminé's ear. "Don't think about the gifts others gave, your gift is just as good as the others."

And again, while rubbing the back of his head, Roxas apologized to Naminé, as if he never whispered anything to her. But thanks to his marvelous plan, Naminé relaxed quite a bit. In fact, she wasn't even nervous anymore, and handed her own package with confidence.

Once Kairi accepted the gift with a polite thank you, she was very curious to see to the inside. She picked up a pair of small scissors and cut the tape. She proceeded to carefully getting the item, that was inside, out, without necessarily destroying the pretty wrapping paper any more. While trying to get the item out, she had hundreds of thoughts wandering inside her head. Why had she not felt so jealous when she saw that "moment" Roxas and Naminé had. Why hadn't she felt any kind of depression, irritation or sadness at that moment. Could it be, that she was over it? But if that were the case, why did she feel so happy when she received the minimalistic letter from Roxas? The moment she got hold of the item, her head emptied of all the thoughts she had, and gently pulled it out. And the second she saw what it was, she gasped in excitement.

"Whoaa!" was the first thing that came out of her mouth. Not the smartest thing to say, but she couldn't get herself to mutter any other words at that moment.  
"This... this is amazing!" she said, after finally being able to talk. "I've always wanted something like this!"

'This' was a box of colored pencils. Quality stuff, by the way. Naminé was obviously a professional – even though she would never admit it herself – and knew all the good brands.

Kairi was genuinely amazed, as she kept pouring compliments at Naminé. But compliments weren't enough, and soon Kairi was hanging on Naminé's neck like she'd never let go. "Thanks soo much!" she yelled, now sobbing happy tears. After hesitating for a second, Naminé hugged back, and smiled secretly.

The situation took several minutes to calm down. But once it had, it meant that Sora would be up next. With calm and determined eyes, he approached Kairi, and took out his package. It was rather small, possibly being a medium-sized box of chocolate, or a below average-sized book. He handed it over to Kairi, who was once again curious to see what was inside.

Again, carefully opening the gift, Kairi found out that what was inside was a small purse. It had an adorable design, despite being cute simple. The base color was a dark shade of gray, which could have been considered black. But in the center of all darkness, there was a long, pink ribbon that gave some nice contrast.

Truthfully, these kinds of things weren't new to Kairi. She knew what kind of presents Sora gave out. She knew he'd know what kind of a taste Kairi had, and that's why she wasn't really surprised. But none-the-less, she was very happy. "Thanks, Sora, it's adorable", she thanked, while smiling a sweet, innocent smile. Sora was the same as Kairi, and he was used to this reaction she gave. However, even though it was predictable, it couldn't stop Sora from blushing, as he ran a hand through his hair in embarrassment.

Out of a habit, Kairi opened the purse, without expecting anything. But she sure was surprised to see what was on the inside. She reached to it and pulled it out. It was a shiny, golden pendant. "Wow..." her eyes were shining as she stared at the necklace, and the jewel that was bound in it. "Oh Paopu, this is gorgeous", she said, completely enchanted by the jewel. It looked like an opal, having a sunny effect in it. "If I were to describe Destiny Island, it would definitely be this."

Sora was now happier than ever. But even though this was a fact, he just kept smiling a warm smile, while sitting next to the girl he could never let go, no matter how hard he tried. He glanced at her. Her eyes were still sparkling, and her mouth forged a small 'o' from adoration. Before realizing it, he had already wrapped her around his arms. "Happy birthday, Kairi", he whispered, and Kairi was barely able to hear. She didn't seem to mind being in Sora's arms, and she put the pendant down, even though she was still holding it.

Roxas and Naminé were squealing on the inside like silly fangirls. Talking to each other silently with their eyes, they were as excited as ever. "Let's leave", Roxas suggested by tilting his head a couple of times towards the kitchen. Naminé merely smiled as an agreement, and they left from the room as silently as possible.

"Oh, right, let me put that on for you", Sora suggested, pointing at the necklace. Kairi nodded and turned around so that her back was towards Sora, and she lifted up her hair.

Blush.

"Uh, yeah, look out for your hair, then, okay?"

"Yeah."

Kairi gathered her hair once again, this time a bit more properly, and held it up. She flinched slightly when she felt the cold material of the necklace against her skin. But the coldness didn't last for long, since the next thing she could feel was Sora's touch. Kairi closed her eyes. 'He sure has that calming effect', she thought, while she let Sora complete fidgeting with the lock. Soon the brunet was done, and the red-head could let go of her hair.

"Wait, where did those two go?" Sora asked in confusion, but only getting a shoulders' raise -gesture and a confused expression as a reply.

After spying and staring at the cute pairing, Roxas and Naminé were helping themselves to another serving of cake with satisfied smiles on their faces. Naminé took a huge piece, and Roxas couldn't help but to hold his laughter in, when he compared his own, rather small piece, and Naminé's big one.

"You like these kinds of cakes?" Roxas asked, still trying to resist the urge to chuckle. Naminé looked as if she were sent to heaven each time she took a bite. Her spoonfuls were surprisingly very small compared to the amount she was about to finish.

"Mhyhm, ve bilmn esh delishm!" she replied, and Roxas finally burst out laughing. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, he said:"Gee, eat or talk, just not both at the same time."

Naminé blushed at this, and emptied her mouth before she opened it again. "I said that the filling is delicious."

"Yeah, I understood as much. The filling is Kairi's favorite, by the way, it's paopu", the blond boy replied, while still laughing a little silently. He decided to start eating his own piece, and took a spoonful. He didn't specifically like or dislike the cake, but he had to admit that it wasn't his favorite and he would have rather had something more salty.

"Paopu, huh... Isn't that what Destiny Island is known for?" Naminé asked, with her cheeks full of the cake, which made her look like a hamster. And again, Roxas had to fight against an urge. This time, he really wanted to poke Naminé's cheeks, but was afraid that they would explode one way or another.

"More or less."

The blondes continued eating in silence, giving Sora and Kairi some privacy, and they were really eager to see some progress.

"Oh, yeah, by the way, it won't take so long until you-know-who-two will move on to the next stage. Probably", Naminé started, breaking the slience that had been lingering around.

"Err, I don't know... I haven't known the two of them that well since grade seven... I just got to know Kairi last year and Sora this year, but they seem like the type to be really, really, really slow about things like these", Roxas countered, and his point made the both of them laugh at the pairing they were talking about.

"I can completely see them taking their time, now that I think about it!"

"Right, right? If they were ever to get married, I doubt they would until they were both twenty-five or something!"

"Yep! That would seem completely natural."

With a few more points made, the two of them fell silently again. It seemed like they weren't able to keep up a conversation for so long, but the silences between them weren't so awkward. Rather, they were quite comfortable, more like some time and space to pick up their thoughts and try to put every piece in the puzzle to their place. They both were quite the thinkers, after all.

When Naminé was running through her thoughts, she was reminded of one she was thinking of back when they were giving out their presents to Kairi. She bit her bottom lip while trying to come to a conclusion, but she was uncertain. But unlike Naminé, Roxas wasn't thinking about anything at all, despite the fact that he used to think a lot whenever silence was cast upon the crowd. He was leaning on his right hand, and his other hand was resting on the table. Both of their plates were empty. Roxas' plate was quite tidy, since he'd eat as much as he could, literally, while Naminé's plate was not as clean, since she had left all the crumbs and the last bits of whipped cream on the plate. They had both finished their pieces are the same time, even though, as already told, Naminé's was far bigger.

Naminé was having a hard time thinking about all the possibilities that were available to her so-called problem. Or rather than being a problem, more like being a thought. But our other lovely blond was smirking playfully while staring at Naminé. He absolutely adored her features. Her hair was quite a few degrees lighter than his own, and seemed really fluffy, despite being straight, unlike Roxas' own hair, which curled into spikes everywhere. But not only her hair was lighter than his. Her eyes were the same, too. Those light blue orbs looked really nice next to Roxas' blue ones. If Roxas would ever have to describe his type, it would've been pretty much like Naminé. The said boy smiled at the girl before him, who was unintentionally massaging her temples gently.

"Hey..."

One single word, and Roxas was flustered. He wasn't expecting Naminé to come back from space anytime soon, so he got quite startled, and was blushing a little because of it. "W-what is it?" he asked, trying to be as calm as possible.

"Knowing you, you should have come up with something better than just a present and twenty bucks", she finally said, after considering the many ways to say the same thing. "Did you do it on purpose?"

Roxas tilted his head.

"Purpose? What are you talking about~. What if it's just that I honestly didn't know what to give her? Don't judge a book by it's cover, honey", Roxas protested with a deep exhale, which seemed more like a sigh, and raised his hand a bit to support his sentences.

"No, uhm, you just kind of seem like that sort of a person..." Naminé seemed like she would have gone back to the space to think about Roxas' words, but didn't get that far, before Roxas interrupted her thoughts.

"A ha", he chuckled. "Didn't think there'd be someone to actually figure it out!" he said in amusement, while smirking at Naminé. The whole time the two of them had been sitting around that table, Roxas hadn't let his smile fade away, not once. This girl, who he had known for only a few days seemed to catch up to him rather quickly. 'Could there be a reason to that?'

Naminé was slightly honored by these words, and blushed, although it wasn't visible on her cheeks.

"Well, but anyway, there's no way I'd give something gorgeous to Kairi as long as I want Sora and her to be together! If I gave something I'd be sure she would like, wouldn't Sora's gift lose it's effect? It's way more fun this way, right?" he said, and for a moment, he seemed really cool to Naminé. "I guess you could put it that way", Naminé replied with somewhat defeated tone.

Roxas started playing with his hands, and his expression turned serious.

"Hey, Naminé, have we met somewhere?" He faced straight towards Naminé, and they were looking into each others' eyes, until Naminé replied.

"I know... about your blog."

Five words.

Five words were enough to kick Roxas into a bucket of confusion and shock.

"W-w-w-w-whaa~t?!" he asked, grabbing his own face, as if preventing it from dropping. As soon as he had heard Naminé's serious words, his head was filled with the embarrassing, immature posts he had posted ages ago, which made him look immature. Some of the posts may have been rants and vents, some may have been pictures of some crappy meals he had prepared and taken a poor picture of with his phone's camera.

"Erm, uh... which one was it again?" Roxas asked, when he remembered that he had various of blogs, that he usually left when he got bored of the URL, or the design. He was the type to get excited over new things, but got bored of them quickly. But despite leaving the blogs, they were all linked to each other, they were a chain. His very first blog would still exist, and when you would enter it, it would say that the blog was inactive, and there would be a link to the "new" blog, that would be inactive too. Of course, this inactive blog would have a link to the next "new" blog, and so, the chain would continue.

Regardless of the chain, Roxas had been doing a pretty good job staying on only one, so far. His newest blog had been running for a good six months. He had already befriended some people who used to be anonymous, and he was wondering if Naminé could possibly have been one of them. So, as he waited for the answer, he was sweating awfully.

"How should I put this..." Naminé started, looking suddenly shy and not very confident. "I started looking up your..." She took out her left hand and used her fingers to count. She stopped to think when she came to her fourth finger, and was hesitating whether to raise her last one or not. Finally, she came up with an answer. "... fourth blog", she replied. "Oh, but I've looked up your older ones as well", she told him, with a tint of pinkness raising on her cheeks. "You sure have grown, you Organization's thirteenth member", she continued and smiled, making Roxas blush for some reason.

Organization – or to be precise, Organization XIII – was a group in the Internet, and was quite famous. Regardless of the name, there were actually fourteen members, two of them being female, the rest of them being male. Everyone assumed them to be good-looking, but not everyone had shown a picture of themselves. Roxas was one of those who had, but even though he was a member himself, he hadn't seen all of the other members' faces. The Organization had a public live chat room along with a private one. Usually they were just chatting about their daily lives in the public one. The public chat could be followed by anyone, but it wasn't accessible by just anyone. Those non-members who wanted to join the conversation had to be acknowledged by the leader. Of course, it helped if they knew one of the Organization's members, which was the reason why many people wanted to befriend them without actually wanting to know them.

"How did you know about me being in the Organization thingy?" Roxas asked, now in confusion. "My blogs don't mention a thing about that group. It's almost full of _goorgeous_ people anyway", his last sentence reeked of sarcasm, but Naminé ignored it and answered his question instead.

"I once happened to google your nickname. Aisenmay. And that is not a common one, so it found your name in one of the saved chat conversations more than quickly", she explained, occasionally tilting her head to her side.

"Ugh, now I'll have to switch my blog _again. _I don't want people to find out", he said, but wanted to take it back the second his thought had made it's way out of his mouth, since he noticed Naminé's flinching and her shocked expression she was desperate to hide. "I... er, mean... It'd be troublesome if some annoying non-member would get in by applying information about me he got from my blog... or something..." he mumbled, although he was basically saying anything that sounded good in his head for the situation.

As much as she tried, Naminé couldn't ignore his words anymore. She was slightly hurt, and it pained her. Why? It was probably because she...

"... like you", she muttered, more like whispered, while facing the floor. When she realized what she had said, she felt blood raising into her head and she felt like her head was burning. She raised her head as quick as she could, to see Roxas' reaction.

But there was no reaction. Roxas tilted his head and an imaginary speech bubble with a '?' appeared above his head. When the boy in question noticed that Naminé wasn't going to say anything, she only wore her slightly shocked expression, he stood up and announced that he'd borrow the restroom. When he left, he could hear Naminé's relieved sigh. What the girl didn't know that his face was red. Really red. But whether Naminé could even find out was still unknown.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven: Ready, Set... Read!**

A few days had already passed from Kairi's birthday. It was already Wednesday, meaning that school would end a lesson earlier than usually, for both Roxas' class and Sora's, Naminé's and Kairi's class. It was a bliss for all of them. Or it could have been, if the last lesson for Sora's class wouldn't have been Physical Education.

Sora and Kairi both loved Physical Education, and they were both in an excellent shape – partly thanks to Riku – but unlike them, Naminé was quite literally dying. Girls' and boys' lessons were mixed together, since the girls' teacher, Mr. Xaldin had injured himself, so Mr. Lexaeus, the boys' teacher had taken over. And so, the girls ended up playing soccer with the boys. Kairi had insisted that they played girls versus boys, being confident in her skills, but since the rest of the girls had begged for the teams to be mixed, Kairi ended up playing with Sora. But making Kairi play with the boys – or more like playing with Sora – was a bad decision for the opposite team. The duo's combination was amazing and they were perfectly in sync. Kairi was the speedier one, since she had been racing with the boys since she was little, and Sora was the one with more power, which was obvious, since he was a male.

The winner was obvious. The opposite team even went to beg for Lexaeus to separate the duo who kept scoring all the time. Lexaeus merely laughed at this, not bothering to deal with the problem, since he found the duo amusing to watch, even though they were completely crushing the opponent.

The luck was not on Naminé's side, and she had ended up on the opposite team. And with her abilities, she couldn't have stop Sora and Kairi anyway, so she just ended up running around the field without even touching the ball.

After the game Sora and Kairi went to apologize to Naminé, saying that they had got a little too excited, but Naminé told them that it was better that they hadn't went easy on anyone. Kairi joined with Naminé when they headed towards the girls' changing room and showers, while Sora headed towards the boys'.  
The girls got to the changing room quickly, since it was way closer for them than to the boys. They entered along with some other girls who had played soccer with them. They occupied some space for the both of them from the wooden benches that were supposed to be seats, although they were used to keep their stuff from touching the somewhat dirty floor. They threw their bags on the benches and started undressing. Soon something could be heard to come on contact with the floor, as if a coin would have escaped someone's wallet. Naminé bent forward and lowered herself. She noticed that the item that was dropped was familiar to her, but she couldn't recognize where had she seen it before. It was a shiny necklace. Without any clues that could have lead her thoughts forward, she turned into Kairi, who had already wrapped herself in a towel, and was about to head to the shower room.

"Kairi!" Naminé shouted in an average shouting volume. Kairi turned around and walked back to the blonde so that she could hear properly what Naminé had to say.

"Did you drop this?" she asked and took out the necklace.

Kairi's eyes brightened up when she saw the pendant.

"Yep, it's mine. Gosh, thanks for picking it up for me!" she said and took the necklace from her friend.

"Ah, wait, let me put it on for you", Naminé said, but realized it was futile since Kairi was going to shower in a minute. But it didn't seem so futile when she noticed that Kairi was wearing some bracelets when she used her right hand – filled with the bracelets – to pick her hair so that Naminé could put the necklace on. 'So Kairi's apparently the type to shower even with accessories on', Naminé thought while locking it.

"Hey, is this the one you got from Sora, on your birthday?" she asked, now seeming to recall where she had seen the necklace. She received a small nod from Kairi. And then her smile turned slightly devilish. "Oh? Really now? You know, Kairi", she said, in a sing-song voice. "When a boy gives girl a necklace, it means he loves her", she continued with the same tone, still wearing her grin, even though she knew Kairi wasn't facing her and thus, couldn't see her.

Kairi blushed madly. She knew Naminé couldn't see it, so when Naminé released her grip of the necklace, Kairi just hurried towards the shower without a word, leaving Naminé giggle there on her own. Naminé knew Kairi's reaction. She knew she'd have great news for Roxas now.

Today was the first day their club could actually start. On Monday there were lots of confirmation things to be done, where they heard that they had to have a club adviser, and his or her signature on the papers. All three of them turned their heads towards Roxas, who had been in charge of the whole thing, and the smart boy had avoided their gaze until he admitted his mistake under pressure. On Tuesday they were hunting for a teacher who would volunteer for the job. They looked for one all day, but none of them found anyone who would have been free. For some reason, Roxas had managed to find someone after school and turned the paper in on Wednesday, and an empty classroom, or rather, a storage room had been appointed to them.

When the three sweaty teens had showered, refreshed and changed, and met outside, they went to the clubroom. Roxas told them he'd be waiting for them over there. And so, Sora, Kairi and Naminé were reunited with Roxas.

Roxas had become the president. The teacher who had confirmed the papers insisted that the leader must be either Roxas or Kairi, but Kairi declined politely. She didn't think she'd be fit to be a president, despite what Sora and Naminé said. But to the less-smart duo, it didn't really matter who got to be the president, if they were to pick from Kairi and Roxas. They had the same average grade, and were adored by everyone. The only difference in their talents was that Kairi was more athletic and Roxas was more into music. But none of that had anything to do with being a president of their club, so when Kairi declined, Roxas stepped into the position with a laid-back attitude.

When they had reached their destination, Roxas was already there, leaning on the wall, until he saw the trio and bounced off to get back on his balance.  
"How nice of you to rush here so quick, I didn't have to wait _at all_", Roxas said and cracked his knuckles. The rest of them sweat-dropped and wondered whether he was being serious, sarcastic, or messing with them. In the end they all decided to give him their quick apologies before Roxas took out the key.  
"Whoa, now that's a nice key!" Sora cheered while he took a second glance at the key. He couldn't keep his eyes off it until Roxas put it into the keyhole and opened the door. But what he could catch by the glimpse was that the handle was yellow, the key itself was silvery and the ending was based on a crown. "I didn't know keys like that existed", he continued, still thinking about the dazzling design.

"Yeah, well", Roxas said, not really thinking about answering properly.

Roxas entered the room, and Naminé was planning on following him, when he took steps back, making Naminé lose her balance and falling to the floor. "Ouch", she said, pretty casually, and rubbed her behind, while Sora and Kairi were enjoying a small laugh, and Roxas offered her a hand. "Sorry", he muttered and pulled Naminé up.

"Why'd you stop?" Kairi asked, and tried to take a peek inside, but Roxas and Naminé were completely blocking her view. Roxas turned to her and sighed.

"Look."

The blond moved aside and let Kairi and Sora find out the reason he had taken a few steps back. The room was covered in dust. Literally. Aside from the few first centimeters from the door, the floor was so dusty you could wipe it with your finger, and get a nice line left. There were three empty, big bookshelves that filled the left wall, and the right wall had a whiteboard. The room sure had been a classroom – although a small one – at some point, but now it was just so full of all kinds of things that it had earned the right to be called a storeroom. You could have seen to the outside right from the door, but the windows were covered by curtains, that were dusty themselves too. All the things that were stored in were covered in dust, and if they weren't, they were covered by some blankets that collected the dust instead. In the right corner, beside the whiteboard and the windows were a few tables and stairs stored on top of each other. On one of the tables there was still even some flowers. But of course the flowers had withered a long time ago.

"Wow", was all Naminé, Sora and Kairi could say, and Roxas was pretty sure they didn't mean it in the most positive possible way. They examined the room and came to the decision that they couldn't start their club activities in a while, and most likely not today. The school would be closed at eight o'clock due to the library, and the clock was currently about to hit number three. They had five hours. Five nice, long, painful hours to clean. And that didn't seem so attractive to Naminé.

"Oh, right!" she said, as if she had remembered something. "I forgot mum asked me to cook today..." she continued, letting her voice trail off, and now sounding apologetic. "So, uh, good luck!" And with those words, she escaped. Or would have, if Kairi wouldn't have grabbed her collar and dragged her back. "No escaping, missy", she said and pressured Naminé with a threatening voice. Naminé just cried about not wanting to clean and how it would suck and how she had so many things to do. And of course, the other three just ignored her cries, since her lies were obvious. Sora and Roxas laughed at Naminé's escaping attempts, since they had experienced Kairi's perfectionism attitude before themselves. When Kairi wanted to perfect something, she wouldn't let herself or anyone else get off the hook so easily.

The cleaning was really tough, with there being so much dirt. "So much for taking a shower", Sora sighed before taking his sweater off. This resulted Kairi to stop working for several minutes. She was cleaning the same spot over and over again. Sora didn't notice anyone staring at him, so until Roxas whispered to her that it's rude to stare no matter how much you'd want, Kairi was staring at him. She also tried to argue back saying that she couldn't care less about Sora, even though she was blushing and didn't seem convincing at all.

In the end, it was surprisingly Naminé who got most of the cleaning done. About fifty percent of the cleaning was done by her, the boys shared a forty percent and Kairi cleaned only a ten percent.

The room was now nice and tidy, and they were now relaxing by drinking some juice around the tables they had moved into the middle of the room. The rest of the random things were moved into another room, and now their room seemed empty.

"Ah, this is refreshing", Naminé said happily after taking a good sip. The others stared at Naminé who had soon emptied her glass and was pouring more juice in it.

"Naminé, you're good at cleaning", Roxas said after emptying his own glass. Naminé smiled at his compliment and started drinking again to hide her faint blush.  
"Yeah, you're completely different from a certain rich kid over there!" Sora yelled with enthusiasm, knowing that he'd get a scolding from Kairi.

"Hey, I never clean around the house!"

"Yeah, don't blame Kairi, she got distracted quite often", Roxas added, sounding and looking completely serious but from the content of his sentence everyone could tell he was messing with Kairi.

They kept teasing Kairi for a good while, until she snapped lightly and lectured them all. Despite being made fun of, she was having fun, too. They were all too tired to carry the books in that they were planning to read, so they just kept talking about anything that popped into their mind.

Suddenly, Sora reached out to Kairi's chest, and for a while, she was really shocked and was about to back off when Sora raised the pendant. 'Oh, it was the pendant', Kairi sighed in relief. 'Wait, what else could it have possibly been than the pendant?' she asked herself, now feeling stupid.

"You're actually wearing it", Sora said and smiled. "It fits her, don't you think?"

Sora received a nod from both Roxas and Naminé.

"Just wondering how you can something like that that fits her perfectly", Roxas began, "when you can't even get something nice for yourself."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing~."

"Come on guys, calm down", Naminé tried.

"But it's true that Sora could pay some more attention to himself..." That was Kairi.

Now the two girls had jumped into the conversation.

"Right?"

"Gee, you guys are cruel!"

"Cruel? How?"

"Naminé, Kairi, tell something to this guy!"

"Roxas, you should go to Sora's house early in the morning and help him fix his appearance."

"Kairi!"

"Err, I kinda agree with Kairi..."

"Not you too Naminé!"

* * *

The next day, after school was the actual first day the club activities begun. That was, after they had dragged all the books they felt interested in. Even though they would treat the club as a place to relax and just hang out, there were several reasons for them to get all the books into the shelves. For instance, if they ever got bored, or if all the others were occupied with something and couldn't come, they could read the books. Also, they had to have a cover, or else the teachers wouldn't have let the club be formed.

The books that were stacked in really varied from heavy literature like _Harry Potters_ and _Lord of the Rings _to some simple picture books the girls had found attractive. Kairi had also brought some of her manga, but she placed them all in a safe place, also known as a lockable drawer. Naminé and Roxas were delighted about this, but Sora was pretty much neutral. Naminé tried to get him hooked by introducing _One Piece_ to him, but he gave up quickly as he found reading right to left too difficult.

So, their first day started. For starters, Roxas had suggested that they'd read whatever they wanted individually. He told them that they'd start reading the same books later on.

"We're really going to do the club activities?" Sora asked with a frown. Roxas sent him a sympathetic smile. "We've gotta do it for the first few weeks, at least. The teachers are gonna check up on us pretty frequently, y'know", he explained, before walking to the third bookshelf that was the closest to the windows, and took a thick book. Then he sat down on the couch they had brought in along with some other nice things, took out his glasses and started reading.  
Kairi followed the leader's lead and took a book that looked like a girly romance-type book. But instead of jumping on the couch beside Roxas, she headed to where Sora and Naminé were standing, which was around the table, and sat around it.

The blonde girl was somewhat disappointed when she found out that they actually had to read. She didn't mind comics or text posts – especially the ones Roxas wrote – but other than those, she hated literature and reading, basically anything that happened to have something to do with books. She let her shoulders drop as she took a deep breath.

"Do I really have to read too? Can't I just kinda... draw?" she asked with a selfish and immature tone. She knew she was asking for, maybe not impossible, but a sort of irresponsible thing. She had, after all, joined a literature club. Naturally there would be some reading too, no matter how much she thought she could just hang out in a room after school.

Sora patted her lightly on the shoulder. "I think you should do as the president says", the brunet stated and took a comic book before sitting beside Roxas. "I didn't know you had a bad eyesight."

"I didn't know you didn't know since I've worn glasses until I became a ninth grader. Well, I stopped wearing them when I was twelve, but I used them every now and then."

Naminé took a look at their president. She found herself drooling at the sight of Roxas wearing glasses. Suddenly she didn't understand the reason Roxas wore contact lenses, since she found him look way better with glasses. She sighed in defeat and took some manga from the so-called safe and joined Kairi, now that the two boys had occupied all the space from the sofa, even though all four of them could have easily fit if they had just sat there considering the others a bit more.

The curtains were now gone and the windows were washed nicely and they were shining thanks to the Sun that was warming up the room, including Sora's and Roxas' back of their necks. Kairi had brought some smaller curtains to frame the windows and to decorate them. They were the color of baby blue, and had several pearls attached as details.

Everyone had brought something. As already mentioned, Kairi had brought the curtains. Naminé had brought some of her framed paintings and drawings to decorate the empty wall beside the door. She also brought some magnets for the whiteboard along with whiteboard markers. Roxas had brought a tablecloth and the lockable drawer, while Sora had brought a small rug to keep their feet warm, since the floor itself was cold. The four of them had paid for the used couch equally. And since it was used and bought from a second-hand shop, they got it for such a small price. The quality of the sofa was a whole different story, but that didn't mean it couldn't last for a few years.

Naminé was starting to get annoyed with the seating, as she flinched in her chair. The chairs were just the regular school chairs, considering that they didn't really have any spare money to use for any more comfortable chairs. The library did have some nicer ones, but everyone highly doubted they could get any, since there were never any spare ones when you actually did need them.

The blonde gave the boys a nasty look, before mouthing her thoughts. "Can't you guys move a little? These chairs are so uncomfy!" she complained, completely aware of her attitude she had had since she had been explained the program of the day. The boys that were slightly taken aback by Naminé's tone, quickly moved aside a little, enough for one more person to join, other than Naminé.

Naminé had moved to sit beside the two boys, letting out a satisfied sigh as she flopped beside Sora, who was now sitting in the middle. They would have went back into their books, if Sora wouldn't have talked.

"Kairi, aren't you going to join us?" he asked and patted the seat beside Naminé. Naminé and Roxas were soon joining the choir of encouragements and were pretty much patting the empty seat to get Kairi join. It would have felt awkward to have one of them stay on the cold, hard seats while there still was space on the comfortable, soft couch. So, they tried their best to suggest Kairi move.

But unexpectedly, Kairi sent them a troubled look, and eyed the couch in suspicion.

"Kai, what's wrong?" Roxas asked when he noticed Kairi's troubled face.

"Well, yeah, I know I was also paying for this thing but... isn't this from a second-hand shop?" she mentioned, still wearing her troubled expression, unable to hide it anyhow. She gestured towards the sofa.

After a moment of silence lingering around, Naminé snapped lightly, and because of the attitude she had been having for the day, Kairi was starting to wonder whether she was on her period, which could have been the cause of her foul mood. "Yes, it is, but that doesn't mean it's bad!" Naminé argued back, in a higher volume that she had meant to, and faster before either Sora or Roxas could have said anything. Kairi was also quite caught off guard by Naminé's sudden raise of voice, noting that she didn't shout much, so she quickly apologized and told them that she'd still rather sit on the chair.

Usually, Naminé was shy and quiet, but she was being unexpectedly loud that day. She wasn't quite the same the day before, but she was obviously on a better mood back then. Nobody dared to say a word to it, so they all pretended to be busy with their books.

The other part of the argument was regretting her decision to raise her voice and was in even lower spirits than she had been since stepping into the room. These kinds of feelings made it even harder for her to continue reading the manga she had had confidence in that she would enjoy reading. But after all, she didn't like people insulting her situation. No, she didn't think Kairi did it directly and she most probably didn't even know about it, but it still had hurt Naminé. 'She was practically saying that second-hand shops suck', Naminé thought, while sighing, both with her exhaling and her heart. Her heart was really aching, she was really sensitive when it came down to these things. 'I better explain it properly to Kairi later on...' she continued thinking, until she realized she hadn't turned a page for forever, and no wonder – she hadn't read a word.

The club members decided to continue tomorrow after two hours. Two hours of reading without a break can be really tiring, no matter how much you'd like the content of the text you're reading. Naminé was completely worn out and she felt as if she had just completed some sort of a marathon, even though that was definitely not the case. She had never read that much in two hours, which was probably the reason why she got such low grades. And she had been reading manga, and that really is quite easy.

Roxas, Sora and Kairi were about to part ways to their homes, Sora accompanying Kairi and Roxas heading towards the opposite direction, when Naminé shouted them to wait.

"I think... I'll quit the literature club..." she gasped in a low voice, making it more of a whisper. Water was twirling in her eyes, but she decided not to let any tears fall. Her determination was enough and worked, but she couldn't stop her voice from cracking.

The other three members were way beyond shocked. They stopped completely, and headed back to Naminé. Anybody could tell she wasn't having the time of her life while reading, but they thought she could get used to it, or rather, she didn't mind reading. But apparently, it was far worse than that. But there was no denying that they were slightly more considered about the club itself than Naminé. If Naminé were to leave, the club wouldn't be able to continue.  
"No, Naminé, you-, you can't quit!" Kairi said, in a concerned voice that just made Naminé feel more uncomfortable. Sora tried saying something similar, but it obviously didn't help, at all.

"Naminé, think about it", Roxas said, he, too, with a concerned tone, but to Naminé, it sounded completely different. Maybe it was because it was said by Roxas, or it was because Roxas was a guy and had a different voice. "We've spent so much time setting everything in the clubroom. We went through pain begging for the teachers to sign all these papers, getting humiliated by other clubs that were around saying that ours was just a pathetic wanna-be-club and get our prides hurt as men", he said, now sounding like a lost little boy, his eyes starting to gleam with all the tears.

"No, Roxas, that was actually you", Sora jumped in, with a hint of amusement in his voice. Kairi supported his sentence with a low giggle.

"Oh, you, shaddup, you", Roxas turned to Sora quickly before returning his eyes into Naminé's.

"Look, we all, including you, researched for lots and lots of books on the Internet, from each others' houses and the library, and that was really troublesome!" he continued with his so-called speech. "We used our money to get us that crappy couch that probably won't even hold for a whole year!" he finished, and added a smile.

For a minute, Naminé stayed silent, letting Roxas' words sink into her mind, as she was running through all the points he had made. She couldn't deny any of them. After thinking about it for a while, Naminé decided that she couldn't argue with Roxas. Knowing that slightly-appearing-to-be-arrogant-and-a-know-it-all-that-he-seemed-to-have-learned-it-somewhere, she couldn't stand a chance. Her only reasons for leaving were that she was exhausted, and as already mentioned, felt as if she had just completed a marathon, even though she had never completed a marathon, and she doubted she could ever do it.

She inhaled and exhaled. Then finally, she raised her both hands as if she had given up. "Fine fine, I won't quit", she announced while taking a look at the sky and sighing quite much through the sentence, literally between every word, and the sentence did contain five words.

But those five words were more than enough to get a relieved sigh out of Sora and Kairi, and to make Roxas smile. And of course, Naminé couldn't not see that one, and felt overwhelmed, but happy about her decision. Surely, if it was for that blond angel with that smile that could melt anyone's heart, Naminé would start practicing reading. She wasn't exactly sure whether practicing reading was possible, but she would do whatever it takes for Roxas' sake, even though she doubted she would be able to tell him, at least in a while.  
The slower people present, Kairi and Sora were absolutely off the track. They were whispering to each other, asking about the situation and wondering what was going on. What they saw was a blond boy and a blonde girl standing on a sunset, the boy smiling at the girl and the girl as red as the sun that was setting. The thing the duo didn't understand was, why were the blondes staring at each other with such eyes.

* * *

Once again, the so-called slower people were walking to Kairi's place. Sora did this usually, walking the auburn-haired girl home. Whenever the two of them plus Riku had been out playing, Riku would just suddenly disappear, and the next day say he got tired and left home. That's why Sora would always make sure Kairi got home without troubles. A trauma the duo had got was from a few years ago, was when Riku had disappeared for the first time ever, and Sora and Kairi had decided to leave home after searching Riku until very late. And very late, as in the time when all the drunkards start to walk the streets. At the time Sora didn't used to accompany Kairi to her home, so after finally getting a text message from Riku, a reply to their question, they decided both head home. The question was about Riku's whereabouts, and he had finally replied to them, telling them he had already gone to bed.

Kairi had been terrified of walking home on that late hour. And just a few hundred meters away from her front door, an old man, who reeked of alcohol and was obviously drunk, had approached her. He had grabbed quite firmly of Kairi's hand, and if it weren't for some of Kairi's friendly neighbors who had heard her screams in the middle of the night and woken up to help her, who knows what would have happened to her.

After telling about the incident to Sora, he absolutely refused to let Kairi experience the same ever again. He had clearly noted how much Kairi was shaking while telling him the story, and her voice was cracking. So that's why the habit of walking Kairi home had become a habit, and Kairi had gotten used to it. Moreover, Sora's house wasn't so far away from Kairi's, and walking back to his own from Kairi's house would only take five minutes.

This time, walking with Kairi was silent. Usually Kairi was hyper about the events that had happened that day, and she'd notice every little positive thing, such as how beautiful the sky looked, or how cute that little stray cat was, and how much she wished she could keep it. A second later, she would call to a place that would take in animals and take care of them until they found an owner. Or, she would take a quick look at the windows of the shops that they passed, noticing all the sparkly and glittery things and pointing at them.

"Kairi?" Sora asked, not being able to handle the silence any longer. It wasn't like Kairi had experienced anything so negative that it would be a bad idea to talk.

Kairi's head turned to her left and a bit up, reminding her about the height distance that had grown between them the last few years. She didn't say anything, but she was staring at Sora, waiting him to say something.

"Uh... you okay?" Sora asked, when he didn't hear or see Kairi replying, thinking it was a rare sight to see.

Once again, Kairi didn't, or wasn't bothered to reply, and just nodded. She was quite deep in thought. She didn't even notice her pace of walking dropping, which, if she would have continued it, would have made the walk to her home take forever.

But thinking really wasn't Kairi's thing, other than in exams. Other than exams and tests, she would've preferred not to think. At least, not to think alone. That's why soon, she was holding the back of Sora's sweater, making him stop at the same time she did. Sora looked at the girl who had grabbed the comfortable material and was waiting her to say whatever she had to say.

"Do you think..." Kairi started, still keeping her head to the back of Sora's feet and at the same time, staring at her own toes. When Sora turned around to face her, she raised her head and continued. "... Naminé likes Roxas?" she asked, with a desperate and helpless voice, that differed from the tone Roxas had had when thinking about his hurt pride and the humiliation he had faced. The tone Kairi was wearing on her question was heart-wrecking to Sora, but he didn't know what to do, and the fact that he hadn't listened to her question, at all, didn't help.

So after trying to recall the words Kairi had just said, and succeeding at it, he wore a confused frown. "W-w-what? Naminé likes Roxas?" he asked, more like shouted. He was genuinely surprised.

"I think Roxas likes Naminé too..." Kairi continued, this time clearly not bothering to answer Sora's question. She had already, either unconsciously or consciously grabbed the T-shirt Sora was wearing, since he had turned around and his sweater was open.

Sora just stood in his place, trying to get the message through to his head, but Kairi's voice, her sad voice, was distracting him well enough. So, his thinking was a lot slower than usually, although it wasn't that quick even if he wasn't distracted. "Aren't they just remarkable friends? They act like old friends, actually..." Sora tried, and patted Kairi in attempt to calm her down. He went from patting to stroking it. Kairi's smooth hair could never stop surprising Sora, although he didn't usually have a reason to touch it.

After getting a piece of the calming touch, Kairi's thoughts came together and she could actually forge a sentence, which had been difficult for the past minutes, even though the sentences were simple and didn't consist of difficult words. "Didn't you see the way they were staring at each other?" she asked, still wearing that sad, desperate voice.

Now, Sora couldn't stop stroking Kairi's hair, he was addicted to it. It seemed to really calm Kairi down as well, and she seemed completely comfortable with it, so he continued doing it. "That sounded really cliche, but other than that, they really took their time eyeing each others' eyes", Sora chuckled, but his voice turned serious at the end of his sentence, although he was still smiling reassuringly.

"Yeah..."

Sora was really trying to resist the urge to say what he was thinking. 'You should get over him already', or something of the sort. But the last thing he wanted to do was make Kairi upset. And he refused to lie, so he stayed silent, and just plain stroked Kairi's hair.

After a while, once Kairi had completely calmed down, they resumed their walk, now just a hundred times slower than before. There was no awkward atmosphere. There was no relaxed atmosphere. The both of them questioned whether there was an atmosphere at all. But Kairi was, in a way, very sad, but in a way, very happy. And if the atmosphere would have been named something, it could have possibly been "trust". Kairi knew he could trust Sora, and likewise. There was no reason to be afraid, ever, as long as Sora was with her.


End file.
